*     OCT    2  1907      * 


Division 
Sectioa 


SiBO 


/, 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/freedominchurchoOOalle 


FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 


-y^^y^o' 


ix' 


FREEDOM    IN    THE 
CHURCH 

OR 

THE    DOCTRINE   OF    CHRIST 

AS   THE   LORD    HATH    COMMANDED,   AND  AS 

THIS  CHURCH  HATH  RECEIVED  THE 

SAME    ACCORDING    TO    THE 

COMMANDMENTS  OF  GOD 


BY  , 

ALEXANDER   V.    G.   ALLEN 

PROFESSOR    IN    THE    EPISCOPAL    THEOLOGICAL    SCHOOL    IN    CAMBRIDGE! 

D.D.   KENYON,   HARVARD,  AND  YALE;    AUTHOR  OF   "CONTINUITY 

OF  CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT  "  ;     "  CHRISTIAN  INSTITUTIONS  ' '  J 

**LIFK    OF    JONATHAN    EDWARDS  "  J    "  LIFE    OF 

'         PHILLIPS   brooks":    ETC. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:    MACMILLAN   &   CO.,  Ltd. 
1907 

All  righti  reserved 


Copyright,  1907, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  February,  1907. 


NorfaootJ  iPrfgg 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

The  situation  in  the  American  Episcopal 
Church  calls  for  serious  consideration  in  the 
interests  of  theology  and  of  true  religion. 
There  are  many  issues  at  stake.  Honesty  in 
the  recitation  of  the  Creed  is  by  no  means 
the  only  question.  Deeper  motives  lie  be- 
neath the  present  disturbance  than  can  be 
measured  by  the  uncritical  observer.  No 
amount  of  practice  in  ethical  theorizing  quali- 
fies for  judgment  on  the  complicated  issues 
of  religion.  For  religion  constitutes  a  de- 
partment of  life  by  itself,  independent  of 
science,  or  ethics,  or  philosophy.  There  is 
danger  that  the  cause  of  religious  freedom 
and  of  freedom  of  inquiry  in  theology  may 
be  retarded  indefinitely  unless  the  emphasis 
be  again  placed  upon  freedom,  the  one  pre- 
dominant motive  of  the  Reformation  in  the 
sixteenth  century  which  gave  us  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer.  The  desire  for  freedom, 
the  determination  to  guard  the  liberty  of  both 


vi  PREFACE 

clergy  and  laity  then  manifested  was  only 
another  form  of  the  demand  of  Magna  Charta, 
*'  Libera  sit  ecclesia  Anglicana/'  Other  words 
which  expressed  the  purpose  of  the  Reformers 
and  were  often  quoted  were  those  of  St.  Paul, 
**  Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  hath  made  us  free ; ''  and  the  words 
which  follow,  "And  be  not  entangled  again 
in  the  yoke  of  bondage."  Other  kindred 
words  come  from  our  Lord  Himself,  "  Ye 
shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free,  and  if  the  Son  shall  make  you 
free  ye  shall  be  free  indeed.''  This  freedom 
is  called  in  question  when  an  interpretation  is 
placed  upon  the  vows  of  the  Ordinal,  foreign 
to  their  original  intent,  as  if  they  were  a 
business  contract  with  a  corporation  in  accord- 
ance with  whose  terms  the  clergy  resign  their 
freedom  in  Christ  for  certain  material  con- 
siderations, instead  of  a  guarantee  of  Christian 
freedom,  as  in  the  intention  of  the  Reformers 
they  were  meant  to  be. 

The  difficulty  about  the  Virgin-birth  is 
but  a  symptom  of  a  profounder  disturbance 
which  threatens  to  shift  the  base  on  which 
the  Church  was  restored  to  its  pristine  purity 
at  the  Reformation.  It  is  a  difficulty  not 
wholly  created  by  the  "higher  criticism"  or 


PREFACE  vii 

engendered  solely  by  scientific  distrust  of  the 
miraculous.  An  effort  has  been  made  in  the 
following  paper  to  trace  the  difficulty  to  its 
remoter  source  in  the  history  of  theology  in 
the  ancient  Church.  It  was  through  misin- 
terpretation of  the  Virgin-birth  and  the  undue 
prominence  assigned  to  it  that  the  transition 
was  made  to  the  sterile  form  of  Byzantine 
Christianity  or  to  the  impotency  of  the  Latin 
Church  in  the  ages  preceding  the  Reformation. 
There  is  no  denial  in  this  treatise  of  the 
Virgin-birth.  It  is  accepted  as  the  miracu- 
lous or  supernatural  mode  by  which  God 
became  incarnate  in  Christ,  as  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  empty  tomb  mark  the  exodus  of 
Christ  from  the  world.  But  criticism  is 
directed  against  the  misinterpretation  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Infancy  or  against  arguments 
used  for  its  support  which  not  only  go  beyond 
God's  Word  written,  but  give  to  it  a  promi- 
nence which  changes  the  perspective  of  the 
Christian  faith  as  revealed  in  Scripture.  The 
Apostles'  Creed  needs  to  be  supplemented  by 
the  postulate  of  the  larger  faith  in  the  primary 
and  essential  importance  of  the  life  of  Christ, 
and  not  only  of  His  birth  and  passion,  —  His 
life  and  character.  His  deeds  and  teaching ; 
in  other  words,  the  historical  Christ  portrayed 


viii  PREFACE 

for  us  in  the  Gospels.  Out  of  this  study  is 
now  arising  a  new  conviction  in  the  Divine 
leadership  of  Christ  and  of  His  mission  to 
subdue  the  world  unto  Himself. 

Attention  needs  to  be  called  anew,  and  con- 
stantly called,  to  the  distinctive  character  of 
the  Anglican  Church  as  differing  funda- 
mentally from  the  Roman  Church  on  the  one 
hand,  and  from  the  churches  of  Puritan  de- 
scent on  the  other.  Hence  the  preliminary 
chapter  of  this  treatise  is  devoted  to  an  effort 
describing  the  ruling  ideas  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  incorporated  in  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  The  pressure  of  Puritan  opinion 
and  prejudice  is  in  America  so  great  and 
widely  diffused  and  its  attitude  tacitly  assumed 
to  be  identical  with  Christianity  itself,  that  the 
Anglican  Church  has  been  and  is  at  a  disad- 
vantage, and  some  of  its  cardinal  truths  re- 
garded as  no  better  than  a  baptized  Paganism. 
The  Church,  also,  suffers  from  being  regarded 
as  a  diluted  form  of  Romanism.  It  is  neither 
one  nor  the  other.  Romanism  and  Puritan- 
ism are  more  closely  related  in  their  deeper 
spirit  to  each  other  than  is  the  Anglican 
Church  related  to  either. 

A  recent  English  writer  has  given  the  fol- 
lowing hopeful  estimate   of  Anglicanism  and 


PREFACE  ix 

its  possibilities,  and  his  words  may  apply  to 
the  American  Episcopal  Church  as  well :  — 

"  It  [the  Church  of  England]  can  go 
forth  courageously  and  face  the  world  as 
it  is,  believing  that  God's  revelation  of 
Himself  once  made  in  the  person  of 
Christ  Jesus  is  being  continually  explained 
to  man  by  that  progressive  revelation  of 
God's  purpose  which  is  continually  being 
made  by  the  Divine  Government  of  the 
world.  Steadfast  in  its  hold  on  the  faith 
and  on  the  Sacraments  by  its  unbroken 
link  with  the  past,  it  exists  for  the  main- 
tenance of  God's  truth  and  its  applica- 
tion to  the  needs  of  man,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  upholding  its  own  power.  A 
Church  fitted  for  free  men,  training  them 
in  knowledge  and  in  reverence  alike ; 
disentangling  the  spirit  from  the  form, 
because  of  its  close  contact  with  sons 
who  love  their  mother  and  frankly  speak 
out  their  minds ;  not  wandering  among 
formulas,  however  beautiful,  which  have 
lost  their  meaning ;  finding  room  in- 
creasingly for  every  form  of  devotional 
life,  but  training  its  graces  into  close 
connection    with    men's    endeavors    and 


PREFACE 

aspirations;  having  no  object  of  its  own 
which  it  cannot  explain  and  make  mani- 
fest as  being  for  the  highest  good  of  all. 
Afraid  of  nothing  ;  receptive  of  new  im- 
pulses ;  quick,  watchful,  alert ;  proving 
all  things  and  ever  ready  to  give  a  reason 
for  its  principles  and  jfor  their  applica- 
tion ;  exhorting,  persuading,  convincing  ; 
so  rooted  in  the  past  that  it  is  strong  in 
the  present,  and  ever  more  hopeful  for 
the  future.  For  the  great  work  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  is  to  mould  the  future, 
and  so  hasten  the  coming  of  the  King- 
dom. Its  eyes  are  turned  to  the  past 
for  instruction  and  warning,  not  for  imi- 
tation. Steadfast  in  the  faith,  built  upon 
the  foundation  which  its  Master  laid,  it 
can  speak  the  truth  in  love,  using  such 
words  and  methods  as  men  can  best 
understand ;  so  penetrated  by  the  im- 
portance of  its  message  that  it  can  speak 
it  in  manifold  ways,  to  men  of  varying 
tempers  and  knowledge  and  feelings,  but 
striving  to  speak  it  in  such  a  way  that 
the  method  of  its  teaching  ever  elevates 
and  invigorates  the  taught.  .  .  .  Our 
difficulties  and  differences  arise  because 
we  have  not  a  sufficiently  lofty  concep- 


PREFACE  xi 

tion  of  the  destiny  of  the  English  Church. 
If  any  disaster  befalls  it,  the  record  that 
shall  be  written  hereafter  will  be  that 
English  Churchmen  of  this  our  day  were 
not  sufficiently  large-hearted  and  high- 
minded  to  recognize  the  greatness  of  the 
heritage  which  was  theirs." 

Cambridge, 
January  26,  1907. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

Ruling  Principles   of  the  Anglican  Church    in    the 

Age  of  the  Reformation  .  .  .  .  i 

CHAPTER   II 

Historical   Variations   in    the    Interpretation   of  the 

Apostles'  Creed    .         .         .         .         .         '32 

CHAPTER   III 
The  Vows  of  the  Clergy,  and  Clerical  Honesty         .       66 

CHAPTER   IV 

Interpretation   of   the    Virgin-birth   in   the  Ancient 

Church 10 1 

CHAPTER   V 

The  Virgin-birth    and     the    Incarnation    after    the 

Fourth    Century 128 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   VI 

PAGE 

Change  in  the  Doctrine   of  the  Incarnation  at  the 

Reformation  .  .  .  .  .  .161 

CHAPTER   VII 
Modern  Sensitiveness  about  the  Virgin-birth     .         •    194 


FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 


Freedom  in  the  Church 


CHAPTER   I 

RULING    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    ANGLICAN    CHURCH 
IN    THE    AGE    OF   THE    REFORMATION 

Among  the  more  important  changes  which  the 
Church  made  at  the  Reformation  constituting  its 
characteristics  as  the  national  Church  of  Eng- 
land, with  which  the  American  Episcopal  Church 
is  in  agreement,  are  these :  — 

In  the  first  place  the  Augustinian  theology 
in  its  dogmatic  limitation  was  rejected,  by  mak- 
ing the  emphatic  assertion,  which  went  to  the 
root  of  Augustinianism  and  of  the  Calvinism  then 
rising  into  power,  that  humanity  had  been 
potentially  redeemed  in  Christ,  or  in  the  words 
of  the  Church  Catechism,  *'I  learn  to  believe  in 
God  the  Son,  who  hath  redeemed  me  and  all 
mankind.^'  For  this  was  the  negation  of  both 
Augustine  and  Calvin,  that  mankind  had  not 
been  redeemed;  that  the  world  still  lay  under 
the  curse  and  was  a  lost  and  ruined  world  even 
after  the  advent  of    Christ;     that  redemption 


FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 


was  still  something  to  be  achieved,  —  it  had  been 
made  possible  for  some,  it  had  not  actually  been 
accompHshed  for  all  mankind  or  for  the  world. 
This  thought  of  an  actual  and  universal  redemp- 
tion occurs  again  in  the  prayer  of  general 
thanksgiving:  **We  thank  Thee  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  world  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
In  the  light  of  this  truth,  the  dogmas  of  elec- 
tion, preterition,  or  reprobation  lose  their  sever- 
ity and  change  their  character;  embodying  the 
inevitable  comment  on  the  reahties  of  hfe, 
demanding  recognition  for  their  spiritual  value ; 
their  modification  or  rejection  when  they  become 
hinderances    to    the    Christian    life.       (Article 

XVII.O 

Having  got  rid  of  the  great  negation  which 
had  kept  the  world  in  bondage  in  the  Middle 
Ages,   and   was   again   in   its   Calvinistic   form 

^  One  of  the  common  objections  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  is 
that  they  teach  (Art.  XVII)  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion. But  when  this  Article  is  prefaced,  as  it  should  be,  by  the 
larger  doctrine  of  the  Church  Catechism,  that  Christ  "hath  re- 
deemed me  and  all  mankind^''  its  language  assumes  the  tone  of 
common  life,  of  literature,  rather  than  of  dogma.  It  is  true,  and 
who  would  have  it  otherwise,  that  the  assurance  of  being  called 
(vocation)  is  a  most  blessed  one;  while  those  who  have  it  not  are 
warned  against  the  danger  involved  in  dwelling  upon  its  absence 
from  their  experience.  Theology  like  this  is  not  Calvinistic,  nor 
Arminian;  it  is  the  attitude  of  a  great  Church,  based  upon  the 
Gospel  and  illustrated  by  the  realities  of  life. 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  3 

threatening  human  freedom  in  the  age  of  the 
Reformation,  the  Anghcan  Church  reproduces 
the  ancient  CathoHc  charter  of  human  freedom, 
—  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  In  no  other 
church  in  Christendom  is  so  great  prominence 
given  to  this  central  all-inclusive  doctrine.  In 
almost  every  part  of  the  Prayer  Book  it  appears, 
it  is  the  constant,  ever-recurring  refrain,  it  opens 
the  service,  it  is  appended  to  every  psalm 
and  canticle,  it  is  the  essence  of  the  creeds,  the 
formula  of  blessing.  It  would  not  have  been 
made  so  prominent  if  it  v^ere  not  closely  con- 
nected with  that  which  is  most  dear  to  every 
human  heart,  freedom  from  fear  in  the  inner  hfe 
of  the  soul,  and  freedom  from  the  shackles 
without,  from  every  tyranny  whether  of  church 
or  state.  For  the  doctrine  brings  freedom  by 
the  proclamation  of  the  coequality  of  the  Son 
with  the  Father ;  since  Christ  therefore  is  placed 
above  kings;  and  thrones  must  henceforth 
retain  their  power  by  obedience  to  the  will  of 
Christ,  —  as  the  Lord  Christ  hath  commanded. 
On  this  basis  kingship  in  the  English  nation 
rested,  and  on  this  foundation  it  stood  secure. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  the  Magna 
Charta  of  ecclesiastical  and  religious  Hberty  as 
against  any  invasion  of  Hberty  proceeding  from 


4  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

the  secular  throne.  So  long  as  kings  ac- 
knowledge Christ  as  their  head  and  master, 
the  process  must  be  toward  emancipation  of 
peoples  from  every  form  of  bondage.  But  there 
were  other  forms  of  bondage  which  hampered  the 
intellect  and  the  conscience  and  prevented  men 
from  entering  into  the  full  possession  of  their 
inheritance.  And  one  of  these  was  an  ancient 
error  which  obscured  the  Lordship  of  Christ 
and  tended  to  make  His  presence  and  power  in- 
operative. The  Anglican  Church  set  forth  anew 
the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  and  placed  it 
again  on  an  historic  basis,  by  refusing  any 
longer  to  ascribe  to  the  Virgin  Mother  titles  or 
attributes  which  exalted  her  above  her  Son  — 
or  led  to  her  worship  and  finally  to  her  practical 
installation  in  the  place  of  Christ.  This  was 
one  of  the  chief  sources  of  evil  in  the  Church 
before  the  Reformation,  nulHfying  the  Christian 
faith,  tending  to  reduce  it  to  the  old  nature  wor- 
ship of  the  heathen  world.  The  Anglican  Church 
directed  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  evil  when  it 
rejected  from  its  formularies  the  title  Mother 
of  God  (9eoT6Ko<;)  as  applied  to  Mary.  Another 
designation  of  Mary,  as  ''ever  Virgin,"  was 
also  rejected.  The  absence  of  these  desig- 
nations is  striking,  when  one  compares  the 
Anglican   ritual  with  the  unreformed  ritual  of 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  5 

the  Greek  and  Roman  churches,  where,  and 
especially  in  the  Greek  offices,  the  terms  ''Mother 
of  God"  and  ''ever  Virgin"  are  of  frequent 
occurrence.  Allowance  should  be  made  for  a 
certain  exuberance  among  Oriental  peoples, 
where  Western  Christendom  is  more  reserved. 
Thus  in  the  Greek  Church,  the  title  "Brother  of 
God"  is  given  to  St.  James.  St.  Jerome  did 
not  hesitate  to  call  a  certain  woman  whose 
daughter  had  become  a  nun  the  "mother-in- 
law  of  God";  Joachim  and  Anna  were  the 
"grandparents  of  God."  But  whether  the  title 
"Mother  of  God"  is  or  is  not  restricted  in 
its  use,  it  is  misleading,  and  the  AngHcan 
Church  rejected  it  altogether.  On  this  point 
more  will  be  said  hereafter.  The  rejection  of 
the  term  "Mother  of  God,"  as  applied  to 
Mary,  and  the  rejection  of  her  worship  as  well, 
left  the  way  open  for  a  more  historic  and  in- 
telligible view  of  the  incarnation  by  which  the 
power  of  Christ,  as  the  Word  made  flesh,  was 
enhanced. 

The  use  of  the  phrase  "  Mother  of  God  "  (Oeoro- 
Kos)  had  been  sanctioned  by  General  Councils  in 
the  ancient  church ;  but  the  Church  of  England 
was  not  intimidated  by  this  circumstance  in  the 
eff^ort  to  promote  the  freedom  of  her  children 


6  FREEDOiM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

from  every  form  of  bondage.  Thus  in  regard 
to  the  authority  of  General  Councils,  it  is  de- 
clared in  Article  XXI :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  they  be  an  assembly  of 
men,  whereof  all  be  not  governed  by  the 
spirit  and  Word  of  God,  they  may  err,  and 
sometimes  have  erred,  even  in  things  pertain- 
ing to  God.  Wherefore  things  ordered  by 
them  as  necessary  to  salvation  have  neither 
strength  nor  authority,  unless  it  may  be 
declared  that  they  be  taken  out  of  Holy 
Scripture."  ^ 

^  Something  of  the  attitude  of  the  English  Reformers,  in  regard 
to  General  Councils,  may  be  inferred  from  the  circumstances  that 
the  famous  words  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzum  were  cited  when  the 
call  of  the  Pope  for  a  General  Council  at  Mantua  was  under  dis- 
cussion in  1537.  That  Gregory  was  prejudiced  and  sore  at  heart 
over  his  own  personal  experience  does  not  diminish  the  significance 
of  recalling  his  words  at  the  moment  when  it  was  attempted  to 
heal  the  difficulties  of  the  time  by  resort  to  a  council.  In  writing 
to  the  Emperor,  Theodosius,  Gregory  had  remarked  that  he  shunned 
all  councils:  "I  have  never  yet  seen  that  any  synod  had  a  good 
ending,  or  that  the  evils  complained  of  were  removed  but  were 
rather  multiplied.  Since  the  spirit  of  dispute  and  the  love  of 
power  (and  do  not  think  I  am  using  too  strong  language)  are 
exhibited  there  beyond  all  powers  of  description."  And  again, 
**I  keep  myself  at  a  distance  from  them,  since  I  have  found  by 
experience  that  most  of  them  (to  express  myself  in  moderation) 
are  not  worth  much."  Cf.  "Life  of  Gregory,"  by  Ullman,  p.  241; 
and  Burnet,  "History  of  the  Reformation,"  i.  353. 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  7 

From  this  statement  coupled  with  the  rejection 
of  the  phrase  '* Mother  of  God''  from  her  formu- 
laries, it  is  to  be  inferred  that  on  this  point  the 
AngHcan  Church  regarded  the  Fourth  General 
Council  as  having  actually  erred  in  things  pertain- 
ing to  God.  The  implications  of  that  unfor- 
tunate phrase  led  to  the  degeneration  of  theology 
and  to  the  lowering  of  the  tone  of  spiritual  and 
moral  hfe,  from  the  fifth  century  onward.  The 
designation  "  Mother  of  God "  was  rejected 
at  the  Reformation  not  only  by  the  Anglican 
Church,  but  by  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  by 
the  Reformed  Church  in  all  its  branches. 

The  Anglican  Church  subjected  the  decisions 
of  General  Councils  to  the  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  but  she  went  further  than  this  in  the  effort 
to  get  rid  of  that  vague,  undetermined,  and  in- 
determinable authority  known  as  ''Cathohcity,'' 
which  haunted  the  Reformers  as  it  haunts  their 
descendants  to-day.  And  again,  in  Scripture, 
as  the  Word  of  God,  the  rehef  and  escape  were 
found.  In  the  Vlllth  Article  it  is  declared  that 
"The  three  creeds,  the  Nicene  Creed,  Athana- 
sius's  Creed,  and  that  which  is  commonly  called 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  ought  thoroughly  to  be 
received  and  believed,  for  they  may  be  proved 
by  most  certain  warrants  of  Holy  Scripture/' 


8  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

What  is  significant  here  is  the  abandonment  of 
the  authority  of  the  Cathohc  Church  as  the 
ground  or  warrant  for  their  acceptance/ 

The  Anghcan  Reformation  gave  a  new  defini- 
tion of  the  ''Cathohc  Church"  as  that  phrase 
finds  expression  in  the  creeds.  Hitherto  it  had 
been  understood  in  different  ways,  —  the  Greek 
Church  and  the  Roman  Church  each  claiming 
to  be  exclusively  the  Cathohc  Church,  each  de- 
nouncing the  other  as  heretical  and  schismatic. 
According  to  this  new,  enlarged  and  Bibhcal 
conception  given  in  the  XlXth  Article,  — 

"The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  con- 
gregation of  faithful  men,  in  the  which  the 
pure  Word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the 
Sacraments  be  duly  ministered  according 
to  Christ's  ordinance  in  all  those  things  that 
of  necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same." 

The  Cathohc  Church  is  further  defined  in 
the  ''Prayer  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men":  — 

"More  especially  we  pray  for  the  good  es- 
tate of  the  Catholic  Church ;  that  it  may  be 

^  The  American  Episcopal  Church  omitted  the  Athanasian 
Creed,  but  retains  the  Vlllth  Article  in  other  respects  unchanged. 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  9 

so  guided  and  governed  by  thy  Good  Spirit, 
that  all  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  may  be  led  into  the  way  of  truth, 
and  hold  the  faith  in  unity  of  spirit,  in  the 
bond  of  peace,  and  in  righteousness  of 
hfe." ' 

In  the  ''Bidding  Prayer,"  given  in  the  Canons 
of  1604,  set  forth  by  authority  of  Convocation, 
the  definition  of  the  CathoKc  Church  is  more 
explicit  still :  — 

"In  all  sermons,  lectures,  and  homihes, 
the  preachers  and  ministers  shall  move  the 
people  to  join  with  them  in  prayer  in  this 
form  or  to  this  effect  as  briefly  as  con- 
veniently they  may:  Ye  shall  pray  for 
Christ's  holy  Catholic  Church,  that  is,  for 
the  whole  congregation  of  Christian  people 
dispersed  throughout  the  whole  world." 
(Canon  55.) 

Of  this  Church,  composed  of  all  Christian 
people,  it  is  further  alleged  that  no  organized 
branch  is  infalHble :  — 

^In  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  the  word  "universal"  is 
substituted  for  "Catholic."  The  same  usage  had  been  adopted 
in  the  creeds  by  the  Lutheran  Church. 


10  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

''As  the  Church  of  Jerusalem,  Alexandria, 
and  Antioch  have  erred,  so  also  the  Roman 
Church  hath  erred,  not  only  in  their  hving 
and  manner  of  ceremonies,  but  also  in  mat- 
ters of  Faith."     (Article  XX.) 

The  infallibility  which  the  Anghcan  Church 
refuses  to  the  ancient  historic  churches,  she  does 
not  claim  for  herself.  Infallibihty  is  no  longer 
to  be  held  as  a  mark  of  the  Church.  Every- 
thing must  be  tested  by  the  appeal  to  Scripture. 
There  are  things,  however,  which  are  not  con- 
tained in  Scripture,  such  as  rites  and  ceremonies. 
In  respect  of  these,  the  Church  of  England 
claimed  authority,  —  *'the  power  to  decree  rites 
and  ceremonies,  and  also  authority  in  contro- 
versies of  faith."  But  here  again,  the  higher 
authority  is  invoked:  ''It  is  not  lawful  for  the 
Church  to  ordain  anything  that  is  contrary  to 
God's  Word  written."  (Article  XX.)  And  of 
the  discipline  and  worship,  as  well  as  of  the 
doctrine,  the  Anglican  Church  has  ordered  that 
they  be  ministered  "as  Christ  hath  commanded," 
and  "according  to  the  commandment  of  God," 
which  means  that  the  commandments  of  men 
have  been  set  aside. 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  ii 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  the  Refor- 
mation, the  old  scholasticism  of  the  ancient 
church  and  the  Middle  Ages  still  bore  heavily 
upon  the  minds  and  consciences  of  those  who 
had  received  the  ''new  learning,"  and  who,  by 
the  study  of  Greek,  had  seen  a  new  meaning  in 
Scripture.  The  tendency  of  the  Reformation 
was  away  from  dogmatic  subtleties  and  refine- 
ments to  the  intellectual  freedom  and  the  larger 
life  of  the  modern  world.  The  purpose  of  the 
Reformation  was  primarily  religious  and  ethical ; 
and  wherever  in  the  Prayer  Book  the  reformers 
introduced  comment  or  exhortation,  the  stress 
was  laid  upon  the  moral  duties  of  hfe  and  the 
character  of  the  Christian  man.  No  contrast  in 
the  history  of  theology  is  more  striking  than  this 
oasis  of  the  epoch  of  the  Reformation,  between 
the  cumbrous  scholasticism  of  the  mediaeval 
world,  as  developed,  for  example,  by  Thomas 
Aquinas,  where  unwarranted  intellectual  in- 
ferences were  raised  to  the  equality  with  divine 
revelation;  this,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
scholasticism  of  the  seventeenth  century,  whether 
in  the  Anglican  Church,  the  Lutheran,  or  the 
Reformed.  The  hyper-orthodoxy  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  with  its  excessive  intellectualism, 
represented  among  the  Puritans  by  the  West- 
minster   Confession,    or    by    such    writers    as 


12  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

Pearson  in  the  Church  of  England,  or  by  the 
more  luxuriant  forms  which  the  same  tendency 
took  in  Germany,  prepared  the  way  for  the 
descent  of  the  eighteenth  century  into  every 
phase  of  scepticism  or  unbehef.  Deism  was 
the  natural  sequence  of  the  ultra  orthodox,  dog- 
matic spirit  which  has  made  the  seventeenth 
century  unattractive,  obnoxious,  and  almost 
unintelligible. 

The  Church  of  England  cannot  be  under- 
stood or  appreciated  unless  this  circumstance  be 
borne  in  mind.  The  influence  of  Erasmus  was 
felt  in  England  more  powerfully  than  in  his  own 
country,  and  the  Erasmian  tendency  was  toward 
the  ethical  and  undogmatic  side  of  the  Christian 
faith  as  brought  out  in  his  Enchiridion.  His 
Paraphrase  of  the  New  Testament  was  placed 
in  the  churches,  to  be  read  for  the  light  it  threw 
on  Scripture.  During  the  first  half  of  the  six- 
teenth century  the  warfare  was  kept  up  against 
the  old  scholastic  dogmatism,  till  it  became  dis- 
credited and  fell  into  the  obloquy  from  which 
it  has  never  emerged.  This  dogmatic  bondage 
was  one  of  the  evils  which  the  men  of  the  '*new 
learning"  were  seeking  to  overcome;  among 
them  Cranmer,  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, to  whom  we  owe  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  whose  influence  pervades  the  Thirty- 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  13 

nine  Articles.  The  result  is  a  certain  undog- 
matic  character  in  the  formularies  of  the  AngUcan 
Church,  which  has  been  one  of  its  greater  charms 
for  thoughtful  minds.  The  Christian  verities 
are  there  and  each  in  its  due  proportion,  but  they 
are  stated  in  undogmatic  ways,  in  the  language 
of  reHgion  and  of  Hfe,  rather  than  of  theology. 
The  atonement  of  Christ  is  impressively  set 
forth  in  the  office  for  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  but  nowhere  is  any  theory  or  doc- 
trine of  the  atonement  presented,  —  Anselmic, 
Grotian,  or  any  other.  And  did  we  not  keep 
this  point  in  view,  it  would  seem  extraordinary 
that  the  Anglican  Church,  while  giving  supreme 
importance  to  Scripture,  nowhere  lays  down  any 
rule  for  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  or  any 
theory  of  inspiration.  Puritans  and  Lutherans 
and  Romanists  might  look  askance,  as  indeed 
they  did  at  such  a  church,  but  wisdom  is  justi- 
fied of  her  children.  The  Anghcan  Church  be- 
came in  consequence  the  most  comprehensive 
church  in  Christendom,  free  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  trusting  to  the  instincts  which  demand 
the  Christian  faith  in  its  simplicity,  and  for  the 
rest,  building  upon  and  appeaKng  to  ''sound 
learning,"  as  at  once  her  justification  and  de- 
fence. What  Lord  Bacon  was  to  science  in 
opening  up  a  new  world  of  thought  and  research, 


14  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

free  from  the  trammels  of  the  preceding  ages, 
that  the  Church  of  England  was  for  true  religion 
and  piety  and  a  consecrated  learning,  whose 
aim  was  truth  and  reality  as  more  important 
than  any  figments  of  imagination  however 
imposing.  Scripture  became  the  guarantee 
against  an  ecclesiastical  rationaHsm  claiming 
to  improve  on  God's  Word  written;  a  strong 
tower  of  defence,  from  the  invasion  of  the 
scholastic  tendency, — ''the  Word  of  God" 
and  ''containing  all  things  necessary  to  salva- 
tion." The  Church  of  England,  says  Bishop 
Creighton,  "did  not  commit  the  fatal  error  of 
erecting  a  system,  strong  in  an  appearance  of 
unchangeable  organization,  possessed  with  an 
answer  to  every  question,  and  claiming  in- 
falHble  authority.  It  laid  down  decidedly 
enough  the  truths  of  the  Catholic  faith,  it 
retained  every  vestige  of  primitive  practice 
and  of  primitive  organization;  but  it  left 
ample  room  for  liberty  and  did  not  pretend  to 
remove  from  the  individual  his  due  share  of 
responsibility.  Its  great  process  of  reforma- 
tion was  carried  out  by  the  recognition  of  a 
growth  of  knowledge.  The  wisdom  of  that 
decision  has  been  abundantly  proved  by  its 
results." 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  15 

The  undogmatic  attitude  of  the   Church  of 
England  may  be  further  illustrated  when  the 
comparison  is  made  with  other  churches.     The 
Roman  Church  has  a  voluminous  Catechism  set 
forth  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  covering  almost 
every  point  of  controversy  in  the  experience  of  a 
thousand  years,  and  another  large  treatise  con- 
taining the  numerous  theological  definitions  of 
Trent,  together  with  the  long  dogmatic  creed  of 
Pius  IV,  which  was  thought  necessary  in  addition 
to  the  shorter  ancient  creeds.     And  these  large 
commentaries  are  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
very  short  Catechism  of  the  Church  of  England 
and  the  brief  Articles   of  Religion,  contained 
in  a  few  pages  of  the  Prayer  Book.     The  same 
contrast  is  noted  in  the  case  of  the  Greek  Church, 
where,  in  addition  to  the  definitions  and  decrees 
of  eight  General  Councils  held  to  be  infalhble, 
there  is  the  *' Orthodox  Confession  of  the  Eastern 
Church,''  containing  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six    questions    answered   at  great  length;    the 
elaborate  *' Confession  of  Dositheus,"  being  *'the 
eighteen  decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Jerusalem"; 
and  the  ''Longer  Catechism  of  the  Orthodox 
CathoHc   Eastern   Church,"  which  is  in   itself 
alone  a  considerable  volume.     Or,  in  the  case 
of  the  Puritan  churches,  it  is  suggestive  to  note 
how  Catechism  and  Articles  in  the  Prayer  Book 


i6  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

form  less  than  a  hundredth  part  in  length  of  the 
Confession  and  the  Longer  and  Shorter  Cate- 
chisms set  forth  at  Westminster. 

The  contrast  is  still  more  impressive  when  we 
turn  to  the  order  and  disciphne  of  the  AngUcan 
Church.  Here  the  reformers  were  engaged  in 
emancipating  the  Church  from  the  authority  of 
the  Papacy  and  also  from  that  hard  fixed  dog- 
matic system  of  the  Middle  Ages,  —  the  work  of 
monastic  students  shut  up  in  their  cloisters  and 
detached  from  the  larger  reahties  of  Hfe.  Let 
any  one  turn  to  the  oflSce  for  consecrating  a 
bishop  in  the  Roman  Church,  and  compare  it 
with  the  same  oflfice  in  the  Prayer  Book,  and  the 
depth  and  extent  of  the  revolution  accompHshed 
will  be  manifest.  In  the  Roman  ordinal,  out  of 
seventeen  interrogations  put  to  the  bishop-elect, 
nine  are  concerned  with  his  faith  on  individual 
points  of  beHef.  It  is  not  enough  to  ask  if  he 
accepts  the  Nicene  creed,  but  each  article  is  re- 
cited, and  expanded  to  cover  ancient  doctrinal 
controversies,  and  to  each  of  these  the  elect 
must  answer,  **  Credo."  In  the  Anghcan  or- 
dinal all  this  is  omitted,  and  these  interrogatories 
are  substituted :  — 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  17 

'*Are  you  persuaded  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures contain  all  doctrine  required  as  neces- 
sary for  eternal  salvation  through  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  ?  And  are  you  determined 
out  of  the  same  Holy  Scriptures  to  instruct 
the  people  committed  to  your  charge ;  and 
to  teach  or  maintain  nothing  as  necessary 
to  eternal  salvation,  but  that  which  you  shall 
be  persuaded  may  be  concluded  and  proved 
by  the  same  ? 

''Will  you  then  faithfully  exercise  yourself 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  call  upon  God 
by  prayer  for  the  true  understanding  of  the 
same ;  so  that  you  may  be  able  by  them  to 
teach  and  exhort  with  wholesome  doctrine 
and  to  withstand  and  convince  the  gain- 
sayers  ? 

**  Are  you  ready  with  all  faithful  diligence, 
to  banish  and  drive  away  from  the  Church 
all  erroneous  and  strange  doctrine  contrary 
to  God's  Word;  and  both  privately  and 
openly  to  call  upon  and  encourage  others 
to  the  same  ? " 

Even  more  illuminating  is  the  contrast  between 
the  ''Ordering  of  Priests,"  in  the  Anghcan 
Church,  and  the  "Ordaining  of  a  Presbyter" 
{De    Ordinatione    Presbyterii),    in    the    Roman 


i8  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

Church.  In  the  latter,  the  candidates  for  ordi- 
nation standing  before  the  altar  make  the  pro- 
fession of  their  faith  by  reciting  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  It  is  not  expected  of  them  that  they  be 
famihar  with  the  intricacies  of  doctrine  or  the 
history  of  heresies.  That  is  reserved  for  the 
bishop  alone.  No  promise  is  exacted  of  them 
that  they  shall  study  Holy  Scripture  or  recognize 
their  responsibility  to  defend  the  faith. 

In  the  Anghcan  office  the  candidate  recites 
no  creed,  as  a  profession  of  the  faith  he  is  to 
preach.  The  vows  he  takes  are  modelled  after 
those  in  the  office  for  consecrating  a  bishop,  and 
they  give  the  supreme  place,  not  to  creeds  or 
doctrines,  but  to  Holy  Scripture. 

''Are  you  persuaded  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures contain  all  doctrine  required  as  neces- 
sary for  eternal  salvation  through  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  1  And  are  you  determined 
out  of  the  said  Scriptures  to  instruct  the 
people  committed  to  your  charge;  and  to 
teach  nothing  as  essential  to  salvation,  but 
that  which  you  shall  be  persuaded  may  be 
concluded  and  proved  by  the  Scripture  ? 

**Will  you  then  give  your  faithful  diligence 
always  so  to  minister  the  Doctrine  and 
Sacraments,  and  the  Discipline  of  Christ, 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  19 

as  the  Lord  hath  commanded^  and  as  this 
Church  hath  received  the  same  according 
to  the  commandments  of  God  ? 

''Will  you  be  ready  with  all  faithful  dili- 
gence to  banish  and  drive  away  from  the 
Church  all  erroneous  and  strange  doctrines 
contrary  to  God's  Word? 

''Will  you  be  diligent  in  prayers  and  in 
reading  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  in  such 
studies  as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
same  ?" 

In  these  two  offices,  the  "Consecration  of 
Bishops "  and  the  "Ordering  of  Priests,"  we  have 
the  emancipation  of  the  bishop  and  the  presbyter 
from  ancient  or  mediaeval  CathoUcism.  The 
bishop  is  set  free  from  the  domination  of  the 
papacy,  to  which  for  hundreds  of  years  a  vow  of 
subjection  had  been  taken;  and  the  original 
equaUty  of  the  episcopate  is  restored.  In  the 
case  of  the  presbyter,  a  great  step  forward  was 
taken  when  the  responsibihty  was  placed  upon 
him  equally  with  the  bishop  to  defend  the 
faithy  as  the  Lord  hath  commanded  and  as  this 
Church  hath  received  the  same  according  to 
the  commandments  of  God.  This  was  the 
presbyter's  emancipation  from  an  ignorance  and 
irresponsibility  which    had  weakened  and  dis- 


20  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

credited  the  Church  before  the  Reformation; 
and  Holy  Scripture  was  to  be  the  agency  which 
should  bring  the  freedom. 

Nowhere  in  the  formularies  of  the  Anglican 
Church  is  it  creeds  on  which  the  stress  is  laid, 
but  rather  the  Scriptures,  as  the  word  of  God 
containing  all  things  necessary  to  salvation.  On 
this  point  the  Reformers  had  learned  a  lesson 
from  the  formularies  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI, 
where  it  was  shown  what  an  agent  for  the  tyran- 
nical suppression  of  thought  and  freedom  of 
inquiry,  a  creed,  even  the  Apostles'  Creed,  might 
be.  For  a  man  also  might  recite  creeds  and 
dogmas,  and  be  most  loyal  in  defending  without 
understanding  them;  but  when  Holy  Scripture 
became  the  test  and  standard,  it  must  needs  be 
carefully  and  closely  and  continuously  studied 
in  order  to  its  interpretation,  and  ''sound  learn- 
ing" became  essential. 

This  change  in  the  position  of  the  presbyter 
of  the  Anglican  Church  as  compared  with  the 
Roman  priesthood  or  the  Greek,  has  been  com- 
mented on  by  Dr.  Hampden,  late  bishop  of 
Hereford,  and  the  comment  is  important  and 
deserves  to  be  cited:  — 

''Among    other    solemn    pledges    which 
they  [the  clergy]  are  required  to  give  at  their 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  21 

ordination  to  the  Priesthood,  is  that  very 
remarkable  one,  that  they  will  *  banish  and 
drive  away  all  erroneous  and  strange  doc- 
trine contrary  to  God's  word.'  ...  I  call 
this  a  very  remarkable  injunction  of  the 
service  for  the  ordination  of  Priests ;  because 
in  no  other  Church  is  the  Hke  commission 
given  to  any  but  to  the  highest  order  of  the 
Ministry,  the  bishops  of  the  Church,  ex- 
clusively. Neither  in  the  Greek  forms  of 
ordination,  nor  in  the  Roman  Pontifical,  do 
we  find  any  such  charge  given  to  the  Minis- 
ters of  the  inferior  orders,  but  only  to  the 
bishops.  All  that  is  exacted  of  the  priest 
and  deacon,  according  to  the  formularies  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  Churches,  is  the  prom- 
ise of  obedience  to  the  bishop.  .  .  .  At  the 
Reformation,  accordingly,  a  great  change 
was  introduced  in  this  respect.  .  .  .  Under 
the  previous  system  the  mass  of  the  clergy 
were  incapable  of  instructing  the  people. 
...  It  was  rare  to  find  any  who  could 
preach  to  the  people.  .  .  .  The  Reforma- 
tion corrected  this  evil." 

The  Church  of  England  is  preeminently  a 
layman's  church,  more  so  than  any  other  church 
in   Christendom.     If  bishops  and   clergy  were 


22  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

emancipated  and  set  free  from  what  had  become 
the  bondage  of  Rome,  still  greater  was  the 
emancipation  secured  to  the  laity.  In  the 
ancient  Church  and  in  the  mediaeval  they  had 
no  part  in  the  government  of  the  Church  or  in 
the  determination  of  its  formularies.  It  was  a 
common  mode  of  speech  to  designate  the  clergy 
as  spirituales,  the  laity  as  carnales.  All  this 
was  changed  at  the  Reformation.  It  was  the 
laity  who  took  the  first  steps  toward  separating 
the  Enghsh  Church  from  the  authority  of  Rome, 
and  who  finally  completed  the  process.  It  was  by 
the  laity  that  the  Prayer  Book  was  approved  and 
its  use  made  binding.  The  prominence  of  the 
laity  in  all  the  changes  wrought  at  the  Reforma- 
tion gives  a  distinctive  character  to  the  Anglican 
Church  as  compared  with  the  other  reformed 
churches. 

But  in  no  respect  was  the  revolution  made 
so  manifest  as  in  the  one  supreme  act  by  which 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  people,  as  the  laymen's  book  no 
less  than  that  of  the  clergy.  Hitherto  such  a 
thing  was  unknown.  Primers  were  sometimes 
issued  for  the  instruction  of  the  laity,  but  at  the 
Reformation,  all  the  offices  of  the  Church,  ren- 
dered into  English,  were  placed  in  their  hands. 
What  had  hitherto  been  the  priests'  book  was 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  23 

henceforth  to  be  the  possession  of  all,  men, 
women,  and  children  ahke.  In  the  unreformed 
offices,  the  clergy  responded  to  the  clergy,  and 
to  say  ''Amen"  was  the  only  participation  of  the 
people.  In  the  Prayer  Book  the  people  respond 
to  the  clergy  on  equal  terms.  The  clergy  appear 
acting  as  the  people's  representative. 

There  is  a  profound  spiritual  principle  in- 
volved in  this  far-reaching  change.  It  is  some- 
times said  by  those  who  are  ignorant  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  that  in  the  Reformation  she 
put  forth  no  distinctive  doctrine.  The  Zwinglian 
Church  magnified  the  glory  and  majesty  of  God ; 
the  Lutheran  Church  set  forth  as  its  controlling 
principle,  the  truth  of  ''justification  by  faith"; 
the  Reformed  Church  buik  upon  the  Divine  will 
as  expressed  in  decrees  of  predestination.  But 
a  great  act  characterizes  the  Anglican  Church  — 
the  making  of  a  book  whose  possession  by  the 
people  becomes  a  means  of  education,  of  en- 
lightenment, and  of  Christian  nurture.  And  be- 
neath this  act  hes  a  doctrine  or  truth,  which 
involves  what  is  essential  in  the  teaching  of 
Christ  —  the  priesthood  of  all  Christians,  who 
now  offer  spiritual  sacrifices  to  God,  of  them- 
selves, and  not  through  another.  In  the  light 
of  this  truth,  the  agency  of  the  clergy  is  subordi- 
nate.    In  the  mutual  response  of  people  and 


24  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

clergy  lies  the  visible  and  outward  sign  of 
Anglican  worship,  as  contrasted  with  Greek  or 
Roman  or  Puritan  worship,  where  the  isolated 
officiant  at  the  altar  or  in  the  pulpit  alone  is 
speaking  and  the  people  are  silent. 

It  is  another  distinguishing  mark  of  the 
Reformation  in  the  Church  of  England,  that  it 
was  not  overcome  by  a  reactionary  tendency, 
as  was  the  case  in  the  Reformed  Church,  and 
to  a  certain  extent  also  in  the  Lutheran  Church. 
The  Anglican  Church  retained  what  Christian 
piety  had  accumulated  during  the  Christian  ages 
in  the  hne  of  devotion  and  in  the  Christian  or- 
dering of  time,  or  in  the  aesthetic  and  impres- 
sive arrangement  of  its  worship.  But  there  was 
a  cleansing  and  a  purification;  whatever  was 
contrary  to  the  Word  of  God  was  rejected; 
whatever  harmonized  with  it  was  retained. 
The  Prayer  Book  was  not  an  accidental  or 
fortuitous  production,  but  the  work  of  one  who 
devoted  many  years  to  Hturgical  study,  and  who 
by  practical  experience  knew  the  impressive 
points  in  breviary  or  missal,  and  felt  the  im- 
pressive features  which  carried  a  religious  and 
Christian  appeal.  The  Prayer  Book  became 
through  Cranmer's  influence  a  constructive  work 
of  literary  skill  and  of  artistic  merit  as  well  as 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  25 

a  summary  of  religious  devotion.  It  was  done 
also  at  the  right  moment  in  history,  a  moment 
which  unavailed  of  would  have  been  lost  forever. 
The  juncture  of  the  new  and  the  old  constituted 
a  plastic  creative  hour;  and  the  man  met  the 
hour,  who  was  devoted  to  the  Christian  faith  as 
revealed  in  Scripture,  but  who  without  prejudice 
or  reactionary  tendency  was  able  and  glad  to 
discern  in  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  past 
whatever  bound  it  to  the  present  or  to  the  future. 
No  great  and  pure  religious  instinct  was  over- 
looked. Indeed  there  was  some  concession  to 
the  weakness  of  those  with  whom  past  associa- 
tions were  too  sacred  to  be  sundered  sharply  or 
rudely. 

Thus  in  the  stately  offices  of  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer,  constituting  the  staple  and 
normal  worship  of  the  people,  it  is  the  for- 
giveness of  God  which  is  offered;  and  in  the 
Reformation,  it  was  God's  forgiveness,  and  not 
that  of  the  Church  or  of  the  priesthood,  which 
was  most  desired  and  needed,  and  most  highly 
valued.  But  for  those  with  whom  the  conscious- 
ness of  God  was  weak  or  who  shrank  from  the 
Divine  approach,  those  who  were  sick  or  at  the 
point  of  death,  the  forgiveness  of  man  was  al- 
lowed, as  in  the  phrase  of  the  form  of  absolution 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  —  ego  te  absolvo.     It 


26  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

is  something  to  be  valued  —  the  forgiveness  of 
man  as  representing  the  Church ;  but  there  is  a 
higher  forgiveness  for  which  the  soul  hungers  in 
its  highest  mood,  which  no  lower  forgiveness 
will  satisfy.  But  this  is  one  of  the  few  conces- 
sions to  the  religious  mood  bred  by  mediaevalism. 
For  the  predominant  note  in  the  Prayer  Book  is 
God,  revealed  in  the  sacred  and  eternal  Trinity, 
—  the  divine  love  and  the  divine  forgiveness; 
and  the  response  of  man  implies  the  cultivation 
of  moral  character,  as  what  God  desires.  It 
is  this  which  lends  dignity  and  weight  to  the 
exhortations  distributed  throughout  the  book. 

Another  feature  giving  high  distinction  and 
value  to  the  Prayer  Book  is  its  conservative 
tone,  which  becomes  a  strong  apologetic  for 
the  Christian  faith.  To  discard  the  devotions 
of  past  ages,  in  the  effort  at  reform,  would  have 
implied  that  the  work  of  Christ  had  been  in 
great  part  a  failure,  that  the  Church  preserved 
no  continuous  faith  or  hfe.  Such  a  temptation, 
and  it  existed,  Cranmer  rose  above  —  even  if 
circumstances  had  not  favored  his  purpose.  He 
could  beheve  that  the  churches  of  Jerusalem, 
Antioch,  and  Alexandria  had  erred  in  matters  of 
the  faith,  that  the  Church  of  Rome  had  griev- 
ously erred ;  but  he  also  beheved  that  they  had 
conserved  the  Christian  faith  to  a  saving  extent, 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  27 

and  that  they  remained  true  churches,  despite 
their  errors.  He  could  hold  that  General  Coun- 
cils had  erred  in  matters  of  faith,  and  yet  retain 
for  them  high  reverence  as  having  set  forth  and 
maintained  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  co- 
equahty  of  the  Son  with  the  Father. 

In  the  age  of  the  Reformation  the  Bible  was 
distinguished  from  other  books,  as  the  Word  of 
God.  It  was  the  Word  of  God,  when  compared 
with  ecclesiastical  traditions  which  were  the 
commandments  of  men ;  the  Word  of  God  as 
reveahng  the  Divine  will,  and  because  the  scope 
of  the  whole  is  to  give  all  glory  to  God;  the 
Word  of  God,  because  it  contained  all  things 
necessary  to  salvation ;  the  Word  of  God,  pre- 
eminently, for  it  carried  the  portrait  of  Christ, 
the  life  and  character  and  teaching  of  Him  who 
is  the  Word  of  God  made  flesh  and  dweUing 
among  men.  Further  than  this  the  Anghcan 
Church  did  not  go.  It  makes  no  answer  to  the 
questions,  How  or  Why.  It  off^ers  no  theory  of 
inspiration,  no  dogma  as  to  mode  of  composition 
of  the  various  books,  their  date,  or  their  author- 
ship. It  is  content  to  trust  the  Scriptures  to  the 
clergy  and  laity  for  their  devout  study,  throwing 
on  them  the  individual  responsibihty  for  the 
interpretation  of  its  contents,  by  the  aid  of  sound 


28  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

learning,  and  by  the  use  of  such  helps  as  minister 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  same.  In  its  conception 
of  the  Bible  the  Anghcan  Church  differs  from 
the  unreformed  churches,  Greek  and  Roman,  in 
not  placing  tradition  or  the  creeds  above  the 
Bible,  or  in  valuing  the  Bible  chiefly  as  the  bul- 
wark of  the  creeds,  in  accordance  with  which  its 
interpretation  must  be  confined.  Hence  there 
is  no  sensitiveness,  no  fear  about  the  Bible,  as 
with  those  who  subordinate  it  to  the  creeds. 
The  Anglican  Church  has  made  no  effort  to 
guard  the  Bible  by  theory,  definition,  or  dogma. 
Not  even  its  infalKbihty  is  asserted.  It  is 
Romanism  or  Puritanism  which  asserts  the 
inspiration  of  all  and  every  part  of  Scripture.^ 
Theories  about  the  Bible  devised  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  chiefly  by  divines  of  the 
Puritan  school  or  by  Lutheran  theologians,  are 
very  often  attributed  to  the  Anglican  Church,  and 
fastened  upon  her,  by  a  preponderating  senti- 
ment from  without  her  pale,  which  it  is  some- 
times hard  to  resist.  But  the  most  careful 
search  of  Anghcan  standards  reveals  no  trace  of 
them.  It  must  be  remembered  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation,  while 
the  Bible  was  held  in  love  and  reverence,  yet 

^  Cf.  "Canons  and  Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,"  Session  IV, 
"Westminster  Confession,"  Ch.  i. 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  29 

there  was  also  greater  freedom  in  its  interpreta- 
tion than  in  the  age  which  followed.     Luther's 
BibHcal  criticism  to  a  later  age  would  appear  Hke 
the   destructive   attack  of  modern   rationalism. 
He  thought  it  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  or 
not  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch.     He  compared 
the    books   of  Scripture   with   each   other   and 
assigned  them  a  relative  importance  according 
to  their  subject-matter  or  their  mode  of  treat- 
ment.    To  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  he  gave  the 
preference  above  the  Synoptics,  and  thought  the 
Epistles  of  St.   Paul  of  greater  authority  than 
the  gospels  of  St.   Matthew,  St.   Mark,  or  St. 
Luke.     If  one  had  St.  John's  Gospel  and  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  he  had  all  that  it  was  necessary 
to  know.     He  found  no  inspiration  in  the  Epis- 
tles of  James  or  Jude,  or  in  the  Book  of  Revela- 
tion.    The  test  with  Luther  was  the  appreciation 
of  the  Person  and  work  of  Christ.     Our  view 
has   changed   about   the   relative   value   of  the 
books  of  Scripture ;    but  what  it  is  important  to 
recognize  here,  is  that  opinions,  such  as  those  of 
Luther,  were  well  known  in  England  at  the  time 
when  our  formularies  were  issued,  and  may  be 
responsible    for    the    somewhat    cautious    and 
moderate  language  used  in  defining  Scripture, 
as  the   ''Word  of   God,  containing  all    things 
necessary   to   salvation."     Cranmer,  who  is  re- 


30  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

sponsible  for  the  phrase,  was  familiar  with  the 
new  learning  of  his  time ;  he  was  a  scholar  also, 
and  had  the  moderation  of  one  who  looked  at 
a  subject  in  its  different  aspects.  To  his  mind 
the  unity  of  Scripture  lay  in  the  presentation  of 
Christ,  by  anticipation  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  by  its  fulfilment  in  the  New.  **Both  in  the 
old  and  New  Testament  everlasting  hfe  is  offered 
to  mankind  by  Christ,  who  is  the  only  Mediator 
between  God  and  man,  being  both  God  and 
Man"  (Article  VII). 

On  this  point.  Dr.  Creighton,  the  late  bishop 
of  London,  has  remarked :  — 

*'The  Church  of  England  stands  in  a 
remarkably  free  attitude  toward  the  prog- 
ress of  human  learning.  It  has  nothing  to 
conceal  and  shrinks  from  no  inquiry.  No 
religious  organization  attaches  a  higher 
importance  to  Holy  Scripture  or  venerates 
more  highly  its  authority ;  but  it  has  never 
committed  itself  to  any  theory  concerning 
the  mode  in  which  Scripture  was  written 
or  the  weight  to  be  attached  to  it  for  any 
other  purpose  than  that  of  ascertaining  all 
that  is  necessary  to  salvation.  That  the 
Scriptures  contain  God's  revelation  to  man, 
there  must  be  no  doubt;    but  the  Church 


RULING   PRINCIPLES  31 

of  England  has  never  erected  any  artificial 
barrier  against  inquiry  into  the  mode  in 
which  that  revelation  was  made,  into  the 
method  and  degree  in  which  God's  spirit 
made  use  of  human  instruments,  into  the  way 
in  which  national  records  were  penetrated 
with  a  sense  of  the  divine  purpose.  It  is  true 
that  assumptions  have  been  made  on  these 
points  and  others.  Men  have  always  asked 
questions  and  have  given  themselves  answers 
to  the  best  of  their  capacity.  Such  answers 
are  of  the  nature  of  hypotheses,  founded  on 
the  best  knowledge  available,  but  capable  of 
extension  or  alteration  as  knowledge  ad- 
vances.'' ^ 

The  fear  and  the  disquiet  caused  by  BibHcal 
criticism  are  overcome  when  we  concentrate 
attention  on  the  essence  of  the  Christian  faith  as 
consisting  in  the  Person  of  the  Christ,  who  is  the 
"Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life."  The  Bible  is 
the  divinely  ordered  record  of  that  Person.  We 
read  the  Bible  that  it  may  show  us  Christ,  and 
that  by  prayer  and  study  and  meditation  Christ 
may  grow  in  our  hearts  by  faith. 

^  "The  Church  and  the  Nation,"  pp.  78,  79. 


CHAPTER   II 

HISTORICAL  VARIATIONS  IN  THE  INTERPRETATION 
OF   THE    CREED 

I 

I.  The  creed  commonly  called  the  Apostles' 
Creed  took  its  origin  in  Rome  about  the  middle 
of  the  second  century,  and  may  in  a  general  way 
be  regarded  as  a  summary  of  those  convictions 
regarding  the  Christian  faith  in  the  strength  of 
which  the  rising  Cathohc  Church  overcame  the 
heathenism  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West. 
Viewed  from  this  point,  it  is  seen  to  include  two 
unique  statements  which  never  gained  formal 
entrance  into  Eastern  creeds,  but  were  for  the 
Western  Church  embodiments  of  profound  and 
influential  conviction.  These  two  statements, 
so  difficult  for  the  modern  mind  to  receive,  but 
of  the  highest  significance  in  the  ancient  Church, 
are  the  ** descent  into  hell  "  {descendit  ad  inferos) , 
and  the  ''resurrection  of  the  body''  (resurrec- 
tionem   carnis)}     In   their  origin   and   in   their 

^  The  translation,  "the  resurrection  of  the  hody^'  is  found  in 
the  "Necessary  Doctrine  and  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Man," 

32 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  33 

development,  they  were  the  expression  of  vital 
belief  in  the  ancient  and  the  early  mediaeval 
Church.  Long  before  its  insertion  in  the  creed, 
the  *' descent  into  hell  "  was  associated  with  the 
conviction  that  Christ  had  not  only  been  actually 
born  into  this  lower  world  and  had  actually  died 
on  the  cross,  and  had  made  this  world  His  own ; 
but  that  He  also  had  ranged  through  the  universe, 
as  the  victorious,  unconquerable  Son  of  God, 
who,  in  the  power  of  immortal  youth,  had  visited 
every  place  where  human  souls  were  to  be 
found,  even  hades  and  hell ;  that  He  had  met  the 
evil  spirit,  the  enemy  of  man,  and  had  routed 
him  from  his  stronghold.  Then,  when  the  under 
world  had  yielded  up  its  contents  to  Him, 
began  the  upward  movement.  Henceforth  souls 
ascended  instead  of  going  down  into  the  lower 
parts  of  the  world.  Heaven  was  revealed,  —  an 
unknown  sphere  to  the  ancient  world.  So,  hav- 
ing accompHshed  His  work  in  the  under  world 
and  routed  the  prince  of  darkness.  He  rose  up 
again  from  the  dead  and  ascended  into  heaven, 
and  He  sitteth  henceforth  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  which  implies  the  attitude  of  assured 
success,  that  evil  had  been  conquered  in  its 
strongholds.     But  it  also  means  more,  —  that  at 

put  forth  by  the  king's  authority  in  1543.  But  the  original  pur- 
port of  the  article  was  to  lay  emphasis  on  the  flesh. 


34 


FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 


the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  He  is  also  in  the 
thick  of  the  strife,  ever  ready  to  come  to  the  aid 
of  His  Church ;  or,  as  St.  Stephen,  before  he  fell 
asleep,  beheld  Him,  not  sitting,  but  standing, 
as  if  the  assault  moved  Him  to  rise  in  behalf  of 
His  devoted  follower. 

Whatever  may  be  one's  difficulty  in  believing 
in  the  descent  into  hell,  the  Church  w^ill  not 
v^iUingly  yield  this  picture  of  the  immortal,  con- 
quering Christ.  If  the  dread  of  the  evil  spirit 
in  the  universe  has  been  exorcised,  it  is  owing 
to  this  ancient  behef,  or  rather  it  is  owing  to  the 
influence  of  Christ  Himself,  as  His  followers  saw 
Him,  when  they  no  longer  knew  Him  only  after 
the  flesh,  but  in  His  transfigured  career  through- 
out the  universe  of  God.  Nor  does  it  weaken 
the  beauty  or  truth  of  the  picture  when  we  recall 
how  the  old  Roman  world,  from  the  second  to 
the  fourth  century,  was  invaded  by  Mithra,  to 
whom  a  similar  role  was  assigned  in  the  heathen 
imagination.  Light  has  been  shed  on  the  re- 
ligious ferment  of  that  age,  by  researches  of 
modern  scholars.^  Mithra  is  now  recognized 
as  having  been  a  competitor  for  the  suffrage 
of  the  Roman  emperors.  He  appeared  as  an 
immortal    youth,  endowed    with    great  beauty. 

1  Cf.  Cumont,  "  The  Mystery  of  Mithra.'* 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  35 

He,  too,  had  a  miraculous  entrance  into  the 
world,  being  born  out  of  a  rock.  He  ranged  the 
universe  as  the  champion  and  protector  of  souls, 
he  was  victorious  over  evil,  he  was  related  to  the 
Sun,  with  whom  he  sat  down  at  a  banquet. 
His  religion  was  popular  in  the  army,  and  it  is 
now  known  that  his  worship  was  practised  in 
every,  even  remotest,  part  of  the  Western  Empire. 
One  advantage  he  had  over  the  Christian  faith, 
that  he  posed  as  the  special  friend  of  the  empire 
and  of  Roman  emperors  and  of  the  army,  — 
the  patron  of  the  established  order,  who  gave 
victory  to  the  Roman  legions.  Here  was  his 
strength  and  here  was  also  his  weakness.  When 
the  Roman  army  met  with  successive  defeats, 
his  hold  began  to  weaken,  and  after  the  time  of 
Julian  the  Apostate  (361-363)  it  began  to  dis- 
appear before  the  conquering  Church.  But  what 
hurt  the  worship  of  Mithra  most  was  the  deep 
conviction  of  the  reality  of  the  birth  and  passion 
of  Christ  as  enshrined  in  the  Apostles'  Creed. 
For  Mithra  never  existed,  and  Christ  had  really 
been  born  and  had  really  suffered  and  really 
died.  It  is  of  scenes  like  this  that  we  are  re- 
minded as  we  recall  the  struggles  of  our  brethren 
in  the  ancient  church,  resisting  unreahty  and 
building  on  the  soHd  foundation  of  historic 
fact.     , 


36  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

In  regard  to  the  "resurrection  of  the  ilesh," 
that  also  takes  us  into  the  heart  of  that  distant 
age,  which  found  comfort  and  support  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed.  The  beHef  was  invading  the 
West,  coming  from  Oriental  religion,  that  a 
sharp  distinction  existed  and  separated  between 
soul  and  body,  that  the  connection  with  the  flesh 
stained  the  spirit  and  weakened  its  power,  and 
that  any  redemption  must  be  from  the  power  of 
the  flesh,  in  order  to  gain  immortahty.  Such  a 
conviction  conditions  the  conception  of  the 
under-world,  as  in  Homer  and  Virgil,  where 
spirits  wander  aimlessly  and  sad,  suffering  from 
the  disembodiment  of  death.  The  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  was  therefore  a 
profound  protest  against  the  dreary  view  of 
Orientahsm,  —  it  meant  life  and  hope  in  this 
world  and  in  the  other.^  In  it  we  may  see 
the  prophecy  of  modern  science,  attaching 
importance  to  the  human  body,  whose  re- 
sults are  more  and  more  apparent  in  the 
physician's  art;  the  basis,  too,  of  modern 
painting,  as  it  revived  in  the  age  of  the  Renais- 
sance, and  attached  itself  to  what  .was  posi- 
tive  in    the   early  art  of  the   Greeks.      When 

^  How  much  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  implied  to  the  old 
Roman  world,  may  be  seen  in  TertuUian's  treatise,  De  Resuv 
rectione  Carnis. 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  37 

we  recall  that,  in  the  places  where  Oriental 
religion  or  Mohammedanism  has  prevailed, 
there  has  been  no  scientific  study  of  the  human 
body  and  that  the  healing  art  is  still  in  its 
rudiments;  or  that  the  plastic  art  of  painting 
has  received  no  development,  nor  added  to  the 
pleasure  and  the  enlightenment,  to  the  beauty 
and  dignity,  of  human  life,  as  in  Western 
Europe,  we  may  be  grateful  for  the  clause  in 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  —  the  resurrection  of  the 
flesh.  But  this  conviction  has  not  been  with- 
out solace  to  the  religious  heart.  The  in- 
sistence on  the  body  of  Christ  with  which  He 
ascended  into  heaven,  the  insistence  on  the 
resurrection  of  the  human  body,  tended  to 
disarm  death  of  its  terrors.  It  was  a  response 
to  an  universal  human  instinct. 

There  are  other  features  of  the  Apostles'  Creed 
which,  while  they  still  retain  their  appeal  to  the 
Christian  mind  and  conscience,  made  that  appeal 
with  intenser  force,  in  a  more  realistic  way,  in  the 
ancient  church.  Such  was  the  conviction  of 
the  indispensable  importance  of  the  new  society, 
which  was  taking  the  place  of  the  old  —  the 
organization  of  the  Church  elaborated  and  per- 
fected with  surpassing  skill  and  diligence.  Into 
this  new  society  each  man  was  to  be  born  by 
baptism,    and    baptism    stood    for    an    inward 


38  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

purification.  The  kingdom  of  this  world  was 
passing  over  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  —  so  it 
began  to  be  interpreted  from  an  early  time. 
Nor  did  the  great  structure  of  the  mediaeval 
Church  in  the  West  or  the  various  Christian 
nations  of  the  East  ever  lose  this  consciousness 
of  a  divine  origin  within  the  Church,  however 
stagnant  or  debased  they  may  appear  in  later 
ages.  From  the  second  century,  the  '  Cathohc 
Church"  as  the  new  society  founded  by  Christ 
and  intended  to  embrace  the  world  was  the  most 
inspiring  of  convictions. 

The  "  forgiveness  of  sins  "  has  a  deep  sig- 
nificance when  we  recall  the  limitation  placed 
upon  its  scope  by  movements  such  as  Monta- 
nism,  in  the  second  century;  but  also  a  deeper 
significance  when  we  place  it  over  against  the 
teaching  of  Gnostic  sects,  where  forgiveness  was 
unknown,  where  souls  were  what  they  were 
and  must  ever  so  remain  in  consequence  of  a  fixed 
evolution  or  emanation  in  the  physical  order. 
Such  was  the  central  principle  of  Gnosticism, 
working  in  disguised  and  subtle  ways,  which, 
if  it  had  not  been  excluded  from  the  Western 
world,  would  have  made  progress  and  hope 
for  mankind  impossible.  The  doctrine  of  for- 
giveness strikes  its  roots  into  the  civil  order, 
reconciles  man  to  life,  gives  courage  and  hope, 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  39 

and    constitutes    the    foundation    of   Christian 
civilization. 

All  these  things  were  but  the  expansion  of  the 
Divine  Name,  or  of  the  baptismal  formula,  — 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  they 
were  implications  wrapped  up  in  the  new  name 
of  God.  They  might  all  be  dropped  or  omitted, 
but  the  Name  would  abide,  and  continue  to 
generate  the  forces  of  the  spiritual  hfe.  Nor 
was  this  origin  of  the  Creed  forgotten.  Ever  and 
anon,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  is  set  forth  as  the 
essence  of  the  Creed  —  a  protest,  it  is  possible, 
against  the  dogmatic  tendency,  which  in  ad- 
vocating too  exclusively  this  or  that  feature  of 
the  Creed  failed  to  do  justice  to  its  larger 
character  and  purpose.  The  Fatherhood  of 
God,  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  Christ,  the 
higher  life  of  the  soul  begotten  by  the  Spirit, 
these  threefold  agencies,  eternal  distinctions  in 
the  Divine  being  and  operating  in  time,  were 
the  essence  of  the  Christian  revelation.  God 
the  Holy  Ghost  drawing  all  men  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Eternal  Father  and  the  Eternal  Son  — 
such  was  the  Christian  motive,  which  was  to 
remake  this  lower  world,  and  to  bring  it  into 
harmony  with  the  upper  world,  so  that  through- 
out the  universe  there  should  be  unity  of  motive 
and  unity  of  result ;  and  the  earth  should  aspire 


40  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

to  attain  the  fellowship  and  communion  which 
constitutes  the  glory  of  heaven. 

For  such  reasons  as  these  the  old  Roman  or 
Apostles'  Creed  has  won  the  confidence  and  the 
loyalty  of  the  Christian  Church.  It  may  be  that 
taken  in  its  original  purport  it  cannot  hold  quite 
the  place  it  did  in  the  ancient  church.  The 
world  has  been  revolutionized,  new  issues  have 
arisen,  the  outlook  upon  Hfe  has  changed.  The 
new  learning,  the  modern  sciences,  have  modi- 
fied our  beliefs.  But  taking  it  as  a  whole  and 
with  a  large  construction,  no  ancient  document 
retains  such  a  living  character  and  even  adapta- 
bihty  to  the  needs  of  modern  hfe.  And  as  the 
symbol,  whose  summary  of  contents  represents 
the  process  by  which  the  Christian  Church  won 
its  stupendous  victory  over  ancient  heathenism, 
it  has  an  historic  interest  unsurpassed  except  by 
the  annals  of  the  life  of  Christ. 

It  is  when  we  turn  from  a  large  constructive 
estimate  of  the  Creed  to  the  historical  interpre- 
tation of  its  separate  clauses,  that  we  become 
aware  of  many  divergencies  of  interpretation 
affecting  almost  every  statement  it  contains. 
They  are  not  evasions  of  its  meaning  nor  efforts 
to  empty  its  clauses  of  their  significance.  They 
are  historical  monuments  of  different  ways  of 
regarding   the    Christian   revelation.     They   go 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  41 

back  to  the  remote  Christian  ages.  They  are 
not  devices  of  modern  scepticism  to  get  rid  of 
difficulties ;  nor  are  they  efforts  to  vaporize  doc- 
trines by  construction,  in  order  to  their  denial 
under  the  guise  of  interpretation.  The  Greek 
and  Latin  churches  differed  from  the  first  in 
their  apprehension  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  di- 
vergencies appear  in  their  respective  commenta- 
ries on  the  Creeds.  But  the  Anglican  Church  has 
no  authoritative  commentary,  fixing  the  meaning 
of  each  and  every  clause  beyond  the  possibility 
of  dispute.  Hence,  there  have  arisen  various 
modern  interpretations  of  credal  statements, 
v^hich  have  been  legitimated  within  the  Church 
by  the  comprehensiveness  which  is  a  mark  of  the 
Church  of  England,  as  compared  with  the  an- 
cient historic  churches,  or  with  the  Reformed 
churches,  so  far  as  they  still  hold  by  the  West- 
minster or  other  standards.  These  variations 
give  the  Anglican  Church  its  adaptedness  to  the 
varying  currents  of  the  national  life  in  succes- 
sive generations,  in  contrast  with  the  stagnation 
of  the  ancient  churches,  which  have  endeavored 
to  stereotype  the  one  aspect  under  which  alone 
the  Christian  faith  appears  to  them. 


42  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 


II 


The  Apostles'  Creed  has  been  subject  to  di- 
verse interpretations.  It  is  not  the  question, 
whether  it  should  be  so;  the  simple  fact  con- 
fronts us.  The  clauses  of  the  Creed  have  been 
expanded,  or,  to  use  another  expression,  they 
have  been  *' stretched"  to  include  modern  re- 
ligious thought  and  even  divergent  attitudes  of 
opinion. 

In  the  age  of  the  Renaissance,  the  Creed 
suffered  a  severe  shock  when  it  was  shown 
by  Laurentius  Valla  that  it  was  not  originally 
composed  by  the  twelve  apostles.  A  tradition 
was  thus  rudely  dispelled  which  had  come 
down  from  time  immemorial,  clothing  this 
venerable  symbol  with  a  sanctity  to  which 
creeds  with  oecumenical  authority  could  not 
aspire. 

The  Anglican  Church  in  the  age  of  the  Refor- 
mation laid  down  the  ruling  principle  for  its 
interpretation ;  but  in  so  doing  departed  widely 
from  another  method  of  interpretation  which 
had  long  prevailed.  A  new  religious  motive 
born  at  the  Reformation  inspired  the  authors 
of  the  Church  Catechism  as  they  asked  and 
answered  the  Question  :  — 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  43 

*'What  dost  thou  chiefly  learn  in  these 
articles  of  thy  belief? 

''Answer:  First,  I  learn  to  beheve  in 
God  the  Father,  who  hath  made  me  and  all 
the  world. 

''Secondly,  in  God  the  Son,  who  hath  re- 
deemed me  and  all  mankind. 

"Thirdly,  in  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  who 
sanctifieth  me  and  all  people  of  God." 

There  is  here  a  distinction  between  the  articles 
of  the  Creed :  some  are  primary  and  essential, 
others  are  subordinate  in  importance.  It  was 
the  mission  of  the  Reformers  to  give  prominence 
to  the  being  of  God  and  His  activity  in  the 
world  of  human  affairs.  Inspired  by  this  con- 
viction they  gained  the  courage  to  resist  the  evils 
bred  in  the  unreformed  church  which  preceded 
them,  where  the  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
the  saints  had  thrown  God  and  Christ  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  into  the  background  of  the  human 
consciousness.  Any  one  familiar  with  the  litera- 
ture of  the  sixteenth  century  knows  how  the  age 
rejoiced  in  the  sense  of  the  Divine  Presence  in  all 
hfe  and  especially  in  contemporaneous  events, — 
in  the  coming  back,  as  it  were,  of  God  to  His 
church  and  to  His  world. 

In    one   of  the    formularies   of  the   EngHsh 


44  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

Church,  set  forth  before  the  religious  reconstruc- 
tion (1543),  known  as  ''The  King's  Book"  or 
''The  Erudition  of  a  Christian  Man,"  is  found 
a  similar  statement  to  that  in  the  later  Catechism. 
It  is  attached  to  a  comment  on  the  first  article 
of  the  Creed,  —  "I  believe  in  God,  the  Father 
Almighty,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,"  and  the 
comment  reads:  "This  manner  of  belief  we 
ought  to  have  in  no  creature  of  God,  be  it  never 
so  excellent,  but  in  God  only;  and  therefore 
in  this  Creed,  the  said  manner  of  speaking  is 
used  only  in  the  three  articles  which  concern 
the  three  persons  in  Trinity,  that  is,  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  ^  The  passage 
is  plainly  an  attempt  to  inject  into  a  document, 
otherwise  mediaeval  and  even  reactionary,  the 
spirit  of  the  coming  reform. 

For  this  distinction  between  the  articles  of 
the  Creed  there  was  a  precedent  in  an  ancient 
commentary  on  the  Creed  by  Rufinus  in  the 
fourth  century. 

"We  say  that  we  believe  'in  God  the 
Father,'  so  also  we  say  'in  Christ,'  so  also 
'/w  the  Holy  Ghost.'  .  .  .    It  is  not  said  '  m 

^  "A  Necessary  Doctrine  and  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Man," 
p.  229,  in  "  Formularies  "  of  Faith  put  forth  by  authority  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII,  Oxford,  1856. 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  45 

the  Holy  Church/  nor  'in  the  forgiveness 
of  sins/  nor  'in  the  resurrection  of  the 
flesh/  For  if  the  preposition  ^in'  had 
been  added,  it  would  have  had  the  same 
force  as  in  the  preceding  articles.  But  now 
in  those  clauses  in  which  the  faith  concern- 
ing the  Godhead  is  declared,  we  say  'in 
God  the  Father,'  and  'in  Jesus  Christ, 
His  Son,'  and  'in  the  Holy  Ghost.'  But 
in  the  rest  where  we  speak  not  of  the  God- 
head, but  of  creatures  and  mysteries,  the 
preposition  'in'  is  not  added.  We  do  not 
say  'we  beheve  in  the  Holy  Church,'  but  we 
beheve  the  Holy  Church  not  as  God  but  as 
the  Church  gathered  together  to  God ;  and 
*we  beheve  that  there  is  forgiveness  of  sins,' 
and  'we  beheve  that  there  will  be  a  resur- 
rection of  the  flesh.'  By  this  monosyllabic 
preposition,  therefore,  the  Creator  is  distin- 
guished from  the  creatures,  and  things  divine 
are  separated  from  things  human."  ^ 

In  the  Nicene  Creed  this  important  distinction 
has  been  in  some  details  of  the  Creed  preserved. 
Thus,  — 

^  "Expos.  Sym.  Apost.,"  36. 


46  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

"  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost  .  .  .  and  I 
believe  one  CathoHc  and  ApostoHc  Church, 
I  acknowledge  one  baptism,  .  .  .  and  I 
look  for  the  resurrection  of  the  dead."  ^ 

The  Apostles'  Creed,  as  has  already  been 
said,  was  in  its  origin  an  expansion  of  the  for- 
mula of  baptism,  —  ''the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  And 
this  distinction  between  what  was  given  by  di- 
vine revelation  and  the  comment  added  by  the 
Church  has  never  wholly  disappeared  from  the 
liturgical  or  other  offices.  During  the  Middle 
Ages,  in  the  Western  Church,  the  distinction  is 
preserved  between  the  catechetical  and  the 
baptismal  Creed :  and  the  latter  was  short  and 
did  not  go  much  beyond  the  Divine  Name.^ 
In  the  present  Roman  office  for  Baptism  is  found 
the  same  distinction.  At  the  opening  of  the 
office  the  full  Apostles'  Creed  is  recited  htur- 
gically,  but  when  it  comes  to  Baptism  the  shorter 
creed  is  adopted,  which  runs  as  follows  in  inter- 
rogatory manner :  — 

^  In  a  translation  of  the  Creed  made  by  Cranmer,  with  great 
care,  is  the  reading:  "I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  that  there 
is  an  Holy  Catholic  Church;  .  .  .  and  that  there  shall  be  resur- 
rection of  the  body." 

^Cf.  Swainson,  "The  Creeds  of  the  Church,"  179  ff.,  for  the 
prevalence  of  other  and  shorter  creeds  and  their  use  at  baptism. 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  47 

''Credis  in  Deum,  patrem  omnipotentem, 
creatorem  coeli  et  terrae  ? 

*'Credis  in  Jesum  Christum,  Filium  ejus 
unicum,  Dominum  nostrum,  natum  et  pas- 
sum  ? 

''Credis  et  in  Spiritum  Sanctum,  sanctam 
ecclesiam  Catholicam,  Sanctorum  com- 
munionem,  remissionem  peccatorum,  carnis 
resurrectionem,  et  vitam  aeternam  ? '' 

''It  would  appear,"  says  Swainson,  "that, 
before  the  Reformation,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  as 
we  have  it  now,  was  never  used  at  baptism, 
either  as  a  declaratory,  or  as  an  interrogatory 
Creed."  The  baptismal  creed  or  confession  in 
the  time  of  Cyprian  (f  258)  read  as  follows : 
''Dost  thou  beheve  in  God  the  Father,  in  (His) 
Son  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  Dost 
thou  beheve  in  remission  of  sins  and  eternal  hfe 
through  the  Church?"  The  Cathohc  Church 
could  not  depart  so  widely,  as  in  the  Roman 
Creed,  from  the  simple  confessions  in  the  Apos- 
tolic Age,  without  an  echo  down  through  the 
centuries  reminding  of  the  earher  simphcity  of 
the  Christian  faith.  Thus  in  the  fourth  century, 
in  the  book  "De  Sacramentis,"  ascribed  to  St. 
Ambrose:  "Thou  wast  asked.  Dost  thou  believe 
in  God  the  Father  Almighty  ?     Thou  didst  an- 


48  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

swer,  I  believe;  and  thou  wast  baptized,  i.e. 
thou  wast  buried.  Again  thou  wast  asked,  Dost 
thou  beheve  also  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
in  His  cross  ?  Thou  saidst,  I  beheve ;  and  thou 
wast  baptized,  i.e.  together  with  Christ  thou 
wast  buried.  Again  thou  wast  asked,  Dost 
thou  beheve  also  in  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Thou 
saidst,  I  beheve ;  and  a  third  time  thou  wast  im- 
mersed, that  the  triple  confession  should  re- 
move the  multiplied  lapse  of  thy  earlier  hfe." 
In  the  Middle  Ages  the  same  echo  was  heard,  as 
in  the  reference  by  Facundus  of  Hermiane 
(c.  550)  to  this  short  form  of  baptismal  pro- 
fession: —  ''they  believe  in  God  the  Father 
Almighty,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  and  in 
the  Holy  Spirit." ' 

The   Anglican   Church   has   only   made   the 

^  Cf.  Swainson,  "The  Nicene  and  Apostles'  Creeds,"  pp.  20, 
22,  24.  Swainson  has  given  several  specimens  of  these  shorter 
creeds,  used  at  baptism,  down  to  the  ninth  century.  Thus  in  the 
Gelasian  Sacramentary  used  by  Thomasius,  belonging  apparently 
to  the  eighth  century,  the  baptismal  creed  ran  as  follows:  "Dost 
thou  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty .?  I  believe.  Dost  thou 
believe  also  in  Jesus  Christ  His  only  Son  our  Lord,  born  and 
suffered  .?  I  believe.  And  dost  thou  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Holy  Church,  Remission  of  Sins,  the  Resurrection  of  the  Flesh  .? 
I  believe."  In  this  creed  are  omitted  the  words  "Creator  of 
heaven  and  earth,"  "conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,"  "under  Pontius  Pilate,"  and  so  to  the  end  of  the  part 
relating  to  our  Lord,  were  omitted  and  so  were  the  clauses  or  words 
"Catholic,"  "the  Communion  of  Saints,  Life  everlasting." 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  49 

ancient  distinction  more  emphatic  by  requiring 
every  child  to  learn  that  what  the  Creed  teaches 
chiefly  is  the  Divine  Name,  —  the  Father  who 
creates,  the  Son  who  redeems,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  who  sanctifies.  Whenever  the  Creed  is 
recited,  this  reduction  to  its  essential  purpose 
is  to  be  borne  in  mind. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  which  may  be 
called  the  age  of  Protestant  Scholasticism, 
following  so  closely  the  greater  age  of  creative 
activity  and  reconstruction,  we  meet  an  exag- 
gerated intellectualism,  which  may  be  seen  not 
only  in  the  famous  Westminster  Confession, 
but  infected  almost  every  important  theological 
writer,  whether  in  England  or  on  the  Continent. 
Under  the  spell  of  this  over  intellectualism,  the 
important  distinction  made  by  the  Prayer  Book 
was  overlooked  as  if  it  did  not  exist  or  were  no 
longer  tenable.  Thus  Bishop  Pearson  (f  1686) 
in  opening  his  ''Exposition  of  the  Creed"  re- 
marks :  — 

"As  the  first  word  Credo,  I  believe,  giveth 
a  denomination  to  the  whole  Confession  of 
Faith,  from  thence  commonly  called  the 
Creed,  so  is  the  same  word  to  be  imagined 
not  to  stand  only  where  it  is  expressed  but 
to  be  carried  through  the  whole  body  of  the 


50  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

Confession.  For  although  it  be  but  twice 
actually  rehearsed  yet  we  must  conceive  it 
virtually  prefixed  to  the  head  of  every 
article." 

Bishop  Pearson  was  not  unaware  that  in  the 
ancient  church  a  distinction  had  been  made 
between  the  articles  of  the  Creed,  but  he  does 
seem  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  the  same  dis- 
tinction had  been  made  in  the  Church  Cate- 
chism. He  refers  to  St.  Augustine  who  had 
taught  that  to  believe  in  God,  meant  not  only 
assent  to  the  truth  of  His  existence  but  imphed 
a  religious  act,  an  act  of  faith,  love,  and 
obedience.  Thomas  Aquinas  had  also  made 
the  same  distinction,  as  had  Peter  the  Lombard 
before  him.  But  Bishop  Pearson  takes  issue 
with  them  all,  finding  his  support  in  texts  of 
Scripture,  for  the  conclusion  that  the  distinction 
between  believe  in  and  believe  {credere  Deum^ 
and  credere  in  Deum)  has  no  vahdity.  There 
is  no  difference  between  faith  and  assent. 
''Faith  is  a  habit  of  the  intellectual  part  of 
man." 

''To  beheve,  therefore,  as  the  word 
stands  in  the  front  of  the  Creed,  and  not  only 
so  but  is  diffused  through  every  article  and 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  51 

proposition  of  it,  is  to  assent  to  the  whole 
and  every  part  of  it."^ 

The  exaggerated  intellectuahsm  or  scholastic 
tendency  of  Bishop  Pearson  left  its  impression 
on  his  age.  It  was  born  of  the  same  mood  that 
produced  Puritan  scholasticism,  the  feehng  that 
in  systems  of  theology  lay  the  salvation  of  the 
Church  from  unbehef;  that  the  intellect  could 
bolster  up  a  creed  which  without  such  support 
was  in  danger  of  losing  its  hold  on  Hfe.  But 
the  commentary  on  Protestant  scholasticism  is 
written  in  the  age  that  followed,  and  is  most  in- 
structive. The  unbelief  came  in  like  a  flood, 
known  as  Deism,  and  the  spiritual  hfe  of  the 
Church  sank  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  its 
lowest  ebb,  until  Wesley  and  Whitefield  restored 
again  the  old  meaning  to  the  words,  /  believe. 

The  attitude  of  Pearson  would  indeed  justify 
the  striking  comparison  of  the  articles  of  the 
Creed  to  a  group  of  precious  stones,  twelve  in 
number,  no  less  and  no  more.  But  the  com- 
parison fails,  in  one  point  at  least,  when  we  recall 
the  fact  that  the  American  Episcopal  Church 
gave  permission  in  1789  to  any  congregation  to 
omit  from  the  Creed  one  of  its  articles,  **He 
descended  into  hell."     The  permission  was  with- 

^  "Exposition  of  the  Creed,"  p.  19. 


52  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

drawn  in  1892.  The  omission,  however,  is  of 
no  special  importance,  if  the  significance  of  the 
creeds,  or  that  which  is  chiefly  to  be  learned  from 
them  according  to  the  Anghcan  formularies,  is 
the  central  fundamental  truth  —  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity.  All  else  is  subordinate  to  this 
supreme  possession,  as  the  all-inclusive  for- 
mula of  the  Christian  faith.  To  the  three  eter- 
nal distinctions  in  the  Godhead,  the  words  *'I 
believe "  apply  with  a  meaning  and  a  force, 
which  is  not  carried  by  the  minor  clauses. 

So  long  as  the  creeds  were  recited  in  the  offices 
of  the  unreformed  church  by  the  clergy  alone, 
whether  at  the  altar  in  ordination  as  an  ecclesi- 
astical vow,  or  in  the  Liturgy,  or  at  the  saying 
of  the  daily  office  in  monasteries,  it  might  have 
been  possible  by  a  fixed  dogmatic  system,  such 
as  that  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches,  to 
secure  a  certain  amount  of  uniformity  of  inter- 
pretation. When  the  creeds  came  to  be  recited 
by  the  whole  congregation  in  every  act  of  pubhc 
worship,  as  in  the  Anghcan  Church,  with  no 
commentary  authorized  by  the  Church  to  fix 
their  meaning,  to  secure  even  this  degree  of 
uniformity  was  impossible.  The  history  of  the 
creeds  reveals  divergence  of  opinion  on  almost 
every  article  or  phrase.  It  would  require  a 
treatise  of  no  small  dimensions  to  do  justice  to 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  53 

the  extent  and  significance  of  these  variations. 
The  discussion  of  them  here  must  be  brief  and 
condensed. 

The  variations  confront  us  at  the  very  opening 
words. 

GOD       THE       FATHER       ALMIGHTY,       MAKER       OF 
HEAVEN    AND    EARTH 

If  there  were  any  one  point  on  which  the  mind 
of  the  ancient  church  was  agreed,  it  was  that 
God  made  the  world,  in  opposition  to  heathen 
theories  of  emanation  or  evolution.  But  evo- 
lution has  worked  its  way  into  the  modern  mind 
in  contrast  to  the  creation  by  the  fiat  of  the  divine 
will,  if  not  in  conflict  with  it.  The  word  ''made," 
or  created,  has  been  stretched  to  take  in  the 
modern  conception,  which  changes  the  ancient 
meaning. 

CONCEIVED    BY    THE    HOLY    GHOST 

In  regard  to  the  mode  of  the  Incarnation  the 
language  of  ancient  fathers  shows  diversity. 
This  phrase  was  not  originally  in  the  Roman 
Creed,  but  may  have  been  introduced  by  the  end 
of  the  second  century.  It  did  not  find  its  way 
into  the  Eastern  creeds  until  after  the  middle  of 
the   fourth  century,  and  its  absence  from  the 


54  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

original  Nicene  Creed  should  be  noted.  In  his 
treatise  on  the  Incarnation,  Athanasius  does  not 
employ  it,  but  attributes  the  divine  activity  to 
the  Logos,  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity,  who 
"when  He  was  descending  to  us,  fashioned  His 
body  for  himself  from  a  Virgin/'  *  *  *  *'For 
being  himself  mighty  and  artificer  of  everything, 
he  (the  Logos)  prepares  the  body  in  the  Virgin." 
("Delncar.,"  8.) 

BORN  OF  THE   VIRGIN  MARY 

As  this  is  now  among  the  sensitive  spots  in  the 
Creed,  around  which  controversy  and  agitation 
have  gathered,  the  discussion  of  it  is  postponed 
to  a  later  chapter,  in  order  to  a  fuller  treatment. 
But  it  may  be  said  in  passing,  that  with  some 
the  emphasis  has  been  placed  on  the  womanhood 
of  Mary,  or,  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  *'born  of  a 
woman,  born  under  the  law";  with  others  on 
her  virginity  as  essential,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  to  the  incarnation.  This  divergence 
dates  back  to  the  second  century. 

HE    DESCENDED    INTO     HELL     {Descendit    ad    itl- 
jerna   or   ad   inferos) 

This  phrase  was  not  introduced  into  the  Roman 
Creed  (Apostles')  until  the  middle  of  the  eighth 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  55 

century,  but  it  had  gained  currency  in  the 
ancient  church  from  an  early  period.  It  was 
in  the  Creed  of  Acquileja  from  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, and  is  interpreted  by  Rufinus  as  meaning 
a  descent  into  the  place  of  punishment.  On  this 
point  there  was  no  difference  of  opinion  in  the 
ancient  church  —  Christ  had  descended  into 
hell,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  and  overcom- 
ing Satan,  and  also  of  delivering  the  souls  of 
those  who  trusted  in  Him.  This  was  the  pre- 
vailing interpretation  still  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, both  before  and  after  the  reign  of  Henry 
VHI. 

**He  descended  immediately  in  his  soul 
down  into  hell  .  .  .  and  at  his  said  entry 
into  hell  first  he  conquered  and  oppressed 
both  the  devil  and  hell  and  also  death 
itself.  .  .  .  The  devil  with  all  his  power, 
craft  and  subtilty  and  mahce  is  now  sub- 
dued and  made  captive,  not  only  unto  me 
but  unto  all  the  other  faithful  people. 

**He  spoiled  hell  and  dehvered  and 
brought  with  him  from  thence  all  the  souls 
of  those  righteous  and  good  men  which  from 
the  fall  of  Adam  died  in  the  favor  of  God," 
etc.  ('*The  Institution  of  a  Christian 
Man,"  1537,  p.  41,  Oxford  ed.,  1856.) 


56  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

In  the  ''Catechism  of  Faith,"  by  Thomas 
Becon,  who  was  prebendary  of  Canterbury  and 
chaplain  to  Archbishop  Cranmer,  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  VI,  is  a  similar  statement,  given  in 
answer  to  the  question,  —  ''What  profit  have  we 
by  Christ's  descension  and  going  down  into 
hell  ?  " 

"By  this  means  we  are  well  assured  that 
Christ  hath  overcome  the  devil,  broken  the 
serpent's  head,  destroyed  the  gates  of  hell, 
vanquished  the  infernal  army,  and  utterly 
dehvered  us  from  everlasting  damnation." 
("Works,"  Parker  Soc.  ed.,  p.  93.) 

To  the  same  conclusion,  though  with  some 
apparent  reluctance,  came  Bishop  Pearson,  who 
criticises,  however,  and  rejects  patristic  interpre- 
tation, such  as  that  of  St.  Jerome,  St.  Athanasius, 
and  others,  who  taught  the  triumph  of  Christ 
over  Satan  and  His  spoiHng  of  hell — a  teaching, 
in  Pearson's  view,  not  confirmed  by  Scripture. 
But  the  descent  into  hell  he  seems  to  admit  as 
the  true  interpretation :  — 

"He  passed  to  those  habitations  where 
Satan  had  taken  up  his  possession  and 
exerciseth  his  dominion.  .  .  .     And  being 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  57 

he  died  in  the  simihtude  of  a  sinner,  his  soul 
went  to  the  place  where  are  the  souls  of 
men  who  died  for  their  sins  and  so  did 
wholly  undergo  the  law  of  death."  (''Ex- 
position of  the  Creed,"   Oxford    ed.,    pp. 

449>  450-) 

Pearson  broke  the  long  uniform  catena  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  the  descent  into  hell.  It 
was  no  longer  part  of  the  triumphal  march  of 
the  victorious  Christ  in  the  supernatural  sphere, 
which  had  included  the  under  world,  with  its 
victory  over  Satan  and  hell,  as  well  as  the  upper 
world  of  hght  and  glory,  and  the  session  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father.  The  way  was  thus 
prepared  for  other  modifications  of  that  impos- 
ing process  which  the  original  structure  of  the 
Creed  involved;  for  these  later  changes,  Pear- 
son's innovation  was  a  precedent  and  justifica- 
tion. When  the  American  Prayer  Book  was 
put  forth  in  1789,  permission  was  given  to  omit 
the  words,  ''He  descended  into  hell,"  or  to  sub- 
stitute for  them  the  words,  "He  went  into  the 
place  of  departed  spirits." 

"And  any  churches  may  omit  the  words, 
*He  descendedlinto  hell,'  or  may  instead  of 
them  use    the  words,   'He  went    into  the 


58  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

place  of  departed  spirits,'  which  are  con- 
sidered as  words  of  the  same  meaning  in  the 
Creeds."   (Rubric  of  American  Prayer  Book, 

1789-) 

The  popular  interpretation  now  placed  on  the 
phrase,  *'He  descended  into  hell,"  is  that  Christ 
went  to  Paradise,  in  accordance  with  His  words 
to  the  thief  on  the  cross,  —  ''This  day  shalt  thou 
be  with  me  in  Paradise."  ^ 


THE  THIRD  DAY  HE  ROSE  AGAIN  FROM  THE 

DEAD 

Opinion  has  been  divided  in  regard  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  resurrection,  as  it  is  approached,  on 
the  one  hand,  from  the  physical  point  of  view; 
according  to  which  matter  in  its  essence  is  so 
endowed  with  potency  that  it  may  be  considered 
capable  of  spiritual  transformation;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  from  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  when 
it  becomes  the  adaptation  of  spirit  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  material  senses  of  touch  and  vision. 
Either  a  material  body  spiritualized  or  a  spiritual 
body  materialized. 

*  Cf.  E.  H.  Plumtre,  "The  Spirits  in  Prison  and  other  Studies 
of  the  Life  after  Death,"  for  a  discussion  of  this  clause,  "He  de- 
scended into  hell." 


HISTORICAL    VARIATIONS  59 


HE    ASCENDED    INTO    HEAVEN 

The  literal  sense  would  imply  that  He  went 
upwards  before  the  eyes  of  His  disciples,  taking 
with  him  His  body,  —  flesh  and  bones.  But 
the  Copernican  theory  has  made  it  evident  that 
there  is  no  up  or  down  in  space.  It  is  only  a 
way  of  speaking. 

Hence  the  spiritual  interpretation  that  the 
ascension  is  the  final  transition  from  the  sphere 
of  the  visible  and  tangible  into  the  realm  of 
invisible  and  spiritual  activity.^ 

AND    SITTETH    ON    THE    RIGHT    HAND    OF    THE 
FATHER 

Again  there  are  two  interpretations.  If  God 
is  conceived  as  outside  the  world  and  located 
in  space,  the  session  of  Christ  is  construed  liter- 
ally as  at  the  right  hand  of  anthropomorphic 
Deity.  This  view  has  been  amply  illustrated  in 
ecclesiastical  art. 

The  spiritual  view,  which  regards  Deity  as 

^  In  the  larger  Catechism  of  the  Eastern  Church  this  explanation 
of  the  statement,  "He  came  down  from  heaven,"  is  offered:  "It  is 
true  that  He  is  everywhere;  and  so  He  is  always  in  heaven  and 
always  on  earth ;  but  on  earth,  he  was  before  invisible;  afterwards 
He  appeared  in  the  flesh.  In  this  sense  it  is  said  that  He  came 
down  from  heaven.^* 


6o  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

immanent,  implies  that  the  right  hand  of  God 
is  a  symbol  of  His  omnipresence  and  omnipo- 
tence, and  that  Christ  is  everywhere,  in  the  midst 
of  the  conflict  against  evil,  and  His  session  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father  becomes  the  symbol  of 
victory. 

FROM  THENCE  HE  SHALL  COME  TO  JUDGE  THE 
QUICK  AND  THE  DEAD 

Either  He  shall  return  in  human  form  at  the 
end  of  the  world,  when  the  judgment,  conceived 
as  a  future  event,  shall  begin;  or.  He  comes 
perpetually  in  every  event  or  movement  which 
furthers  the  growth  of  His  Kingdom,  and  the 
judgment  is  continuous  and  culminating  —  the 
discrimination  between  good  and  evil  and  the 
condemnation  of  the  evil.  (This  latter  view 
is  urged  in  Robertson's  Sermons,  in  the  writings 
of  F.  D.  Maurice,  and  eloquently  presented  in 
Mulford's  ^^Repubhc  of  God.") 

THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC    CHURCH 

On  this  point  the  Anglican  Church  has  offered 
an  interpretation  in  the  *' Prayer  for  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men,"  where  ''all  those  who  pro- 
fess and  call  themselves  Christians"  is  given  as 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  6i 

its  equivalent.  In  the  American  version  of  this 
prayer  '* Universal"  is  substituted  for  Catholic, 
and  this  reading  may  be  carried  into  the  Creed  — 
''the  holy  universal  Church."  In  the  Bidding 
Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England  (Canons  of 
1604,  Canon  55)  it  reads,  ''Christ's  holy  CathoHc 
Church,  that  is,  the  whole  congregation  of 
Christian  people  dispersed  throughout  the 
world." 

On  the  other  hand,  especially  since  the  Ox- 
ford Movement  (1833),  there  has  been  received 
another  interpretation,  —  the  CathoHc  Church 
exists  in  three  branches,  Greek,  Roman,  and 
AngHcan;  an  interpretation  which  excludes  the 
Lutheran  Church  and  the  various  branches  of 
the  Reformed  Church;  in  a  word,  the  Protes- 
tant world  is  shut  out  from  the  Catholic  Church 
of  the  creeds.^ 

^The  Greek  Church  practically  identifies  "Catholic"  with 
"Orthodox,"  and  gives  the  preference  to  Orthodox  in  its  title. 
Among  the  definitions  of  "Catholic"  the  most  prominent  is  in  the 
Edict  of  Theodosius  (380  a.d.),  where  those  alone  are  to  enjoy 
the  privilege  of  being  known  as  "Catholic"  who  accept  the  Nicene 
Creed.  According  to  Vincentius  of  Lerins,  that  is  Catholic 
which  has  been  always,  everywhere,  and  by  all  received:  Quod 
semper^  quod  uhtque^  et  quod  ah  omnibus.  The  Roman  Church  has 
steadfastly  maintained  that  union  with  the  bishop  of  Rome  is 
necessary  in  order  to  union  with  the  Catholic  Church,  or  that 
papacy  is  essential  to  Catholicity. 


62  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 


THE    COMMUNION    OF    SAINTS 

Was  not  in  the  original  form  of  the  Creed, 
but  was  added  in  Southern  Gaul  in  the  fifth 
century,  and  became  a  part  of  the  Roman 
Creed  after  its  final  shape  was  assumed  in 
the  eighth  century.  There  has  never  been 
certainty  about  the  meaning  of  the  phrase. 
It  has  often  been  interpreted  as  in  apposition 
to  the  preceding  phrase  and  as  thus  defining  the 
Cathohc  Church  to  be  the  communion  of  saints 
or  of  holy  persons.  This  was  the  view  of  Niceta 
in  a  homily  attributed  to  him,  where  the  Church 
as  the  communion  of  saints  includes  the  Hving 
and  the  dead:  ''What  is  the  Church  but  the 
congregation  of  all  saints  ^  Patriarchs,  prophets, 
apostles,  martyrs,  all  the  just  who  have  been, 
are,  or  shall  be,  are  one  Church,  because  sanc- 
tified by  one  faith  and  Hfe,  marked  by  One  Spirit, 
they  constitute  one  body.  Beheve  then  that  in 
this  one  Church  you  will  attain  the  communion 
of  saints."  ^ 

Others  have  interpreted  the  clause  as  de- 
signed to  exclude  heretics,  with  whom  there 
should  be  no  communion  —  a  view  which  finds 

^  Cf.  Caspari,  "Anedota  i,"  p.  355,  cited  in  Swete,"  The  Apostles' 
Creed,"  p.  84.  A  similar  view  is  found  in  Sermon  241,  attributed 
to  Augustine  and  published  in  appendix  to  his  works. 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  63 

support  in  ancient  comments.^  Again  it  has  been 
maintained  that  the  purpose  of  its  insertion  in 
the  Creed  was  to  sanction  the  worship  of  saints, 
which  in  the  fourth  century  was  opposed  by 
Vigilantius  and  his  followers,  but  became  the 
later  custom  of  the  Church,  —  a  view  maintained 
by  Harnack  in  his  short  treatise  on  the  Creed.^ 
Still  another  interpretation, and  quite  as  probable 
as  any,  refers  it  to  an  anti-Donatist  purpose,  — 
a  disclaimer  against  the  Donatist  accusation 
that  the  Catholic  Church  embraced  alike  the 
evil  and  the  good,  whereas  the  Church  should  be 
the  body  of  the  pure. 

THE    FORGIVENESS    OF    SINS 

Would  seem  to  stand  forth  distinctly  as  a 
supreme  principle  of  the  Christian  faith  were 
it  not  for  inevitable  inferences  which  either 
illumine  or  darken  its  meaning :  — 

I.  That  the  forgiveness  comes  directly  to  the 

^  Cf.  John  of  Damascus,  "De  Fide  Orthodoxa,"  13;  where  in 
speaking  of  the  Eucharist,  he  warns  against  communion  with  here- 
tics. In  the  "Catechism  of  the  Council  of  Trent,"  Ch.  9,  Quest. 
22,  "Communion  of  Saints"  is  regarded  as  explanatory  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  as  implying  communion  in  the  Eucharist 
from  which  heretics  are  excluded.  There  was  an  effort  to  restore 
this  meaning  to  the  phrase  in  the  Anglican  Church  in  the  last 
century. 

^"Das  Apostolische  Glaubensbekenntniss,"  p.  ^3* 


64  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

soul  from  God,  on  condition  of  faith  and  repent- 
ance, without  the  interposition  of  any  human 
media;  and  with  the  forgiveness  comes  the 
sense  of  assurance  that  sins  are  forgiven ; 

2.  The  forgiveness  can  only  be  obtained 
through  the  Sacraments,  and  by  the  mediation 
of  the  priesthood ;  and  even  so,  the  absolute  as- 
surance of  forgiveness  cannot  be  imparted  in  this 
life. 

THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    BODY 

The  resurrection  of  the  flesh  {resurrectionem 
carnis)  was  the  original  meaning;  and  from 
the  second  century  down  to  this  modern  day  it 
was  the  prevailing  view  that  the  particles  of  the 
body  laid  in  the  grave  would  constitute  the 
body  which  should  rise  again.  Tertullian  and 
Augustine,  among  many  others,  met  the  scoffers 
of  their  time  who  could  not  believe  such  teach- 
ing, with  what  must  then  have  appeared  con- 
clusive argument. 

This  meaning  now  seems  by  almost  common 
consent  to  have  been  abandoned,  and  for  it  is 
substituted  a  meaning  more  in  accord  with  sci- 
entific teaching,  —  that  ''resurrection  of  the 
body"  implies  a  spiritual  body  different  from 
the  body  laid  in  the  grave  and  not  composed  of 
the  same  particles,  —  an  interpretation  defended 


HISTORICAL   VARIATIONS  65 

by  appealing    to    the    Pauline    teaching    in    i 
Cor.  15. 

THE    LIFE    EVERLASTING 

Is  a  Statement  about  which  there  would  be 
Httle  difference  of  opinion  were  it  not  that  it  in- 
volves the  question  of  everlasting  punishment, 
and  the  issue  at  once  is  made  whether  this  latter 
doctrine  is  part  of  the  teaching  of  the  Creed. 

In  his  ''Exposition  of  the  Creed"  it  is  note- 
worthy that  Pearson  comments  at  length  on  the 
resurrection  to  endless  condemnation  as  no  less 
impHed  in  the  phrase  ''everlasting  hfe,"  than 
the  resurrection  to  endless  happiness. 

On  the  other  hand,  according  to  the  decision 
of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council 
(1864):- 

"The  hope  that  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  may  not  endure  to  all  eternity  is  cer- 
tainly not  at  variance  with  anything  that  is 
found  in  the  Apostles'  Creed.''  ^ 

^  Cf.  "Six  Judgments  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council,"  p.  loi,  London,  1872.  No  opinion  is  here  expressed  as 
to  the  authority  of  the  Privy  Council;  but  as  bearing  witness  to  the 
variety  of  interpretations  of  the  Creed  its  judgment  has  quite  as 
much  significance  as  the  opinion  of  Bishop  Pearson,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Among  those  who  acted  as  judges  in  this  case  were 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Dr.  Longley),  the  Archbishop  of 
York  (Dr.  Thomson),  the  Bishop  of  London  (Dr.  Tait). 


66  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

It  is  well  known  that  in  the  original  Forty- 
two  Articles  from  which  our ''Thirty-nine  Arti- 
cles" were  derived,  there  was  one  article,  the 
Forty-second,  which  imphed  the  endless  punish- 
ment of  the  wicked.  The  rejection  of  this  ar- 
ticle is  not  without  significance  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  this  phrase  in  the  Creed. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    VOWS    OF    THE    CLERGY    AND    CLERICAL 
HONESTY 


In  considering  the  vows  of  the  clergy  at  their 
ordination,  the  question  arises  whether  the  Re- 
formers took  any  steps  to  prevent  a  reversion  to 
that  traditional  interpretation  of  the  faith  which 
they  discarded;  or  whether  they  provided  for 
the  growth  of  the  Church  into  ever  higher  and 
fuller  knowledge  of  Christian  truth.  The  study 
of  the  Ordinal  shows  that  they  had  no  soHcitude 
for  the  creeds,  that  they  were  chiefly  concerned 
with  maintaining  the  supremacy  of  Scripture, 
in  the  study  of  which  lay  the  safeguards  against 
the  erroneous  and  strange  doctrines  they  sought 
to  banish. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Anglican 
Church  has  provided  no  authoritative  commen- 
tary on  the  Creed  specifying  what  interpretation 
shall  be  given  of  its  separate  clauses,  with  the 
exception  of  the  important  authoritative  state- 

67 


68  FREEDOM   IN   THE  CHURCH 

ment  in  the  Church  Catechism,  as  to  what  is 
to  be  *' chiefly  learned''  from  the  Creed;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  its  supreme  object  is  to  set 
forth  the  name  of  God,  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost. 

*'  First,  I  learn  to  believe  in  God  the  Father, 
who  hath  made  me  and  all  the  world. 

'*  Secondly,  in  God  the  Son,  who  hath  re- 
deemed me  and  all  mankind. 

''Thirdly,  in  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  who 
sanctifieth  me  and  all  the  people  of  God." 

The  inference  seems  just  and  inevitable  that 
if  any  one  learns  this  much  from  the  Creed,  he 
has  gained  what  the  Church  holds  to  be  essential ; 
the  other  details  of  the  Creed  are  left  to  his  in- 
dividual judgment,  guided  by  Scripture,  to  de- 
termine. As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  has  been  the 
usage  since  the  Reformation  and  so  continues 
to  this  day.  Everywhere  a  variety  of  belief  has 
existed  on  these  subordinate  details. 

This  absence  of  any  authoritative  commentary 
on  the  Creed,  explaining  in  elaborate  fashion  and 
demonstrating  the  meaning  of  every  and  all  its 
separate  statements,  gains  the  greater  signifi- 
cance, when  we  compare  the  attitude  of  the  An- 
ghcan  Church,  in  its  one  brief  statement,  as  to 
what  we  are  chiefly  to  learn  from  the  Creed,  with 


THE    VOWS    OF   THE   CLERGY  69 

the  expansive,  voluminous,  and  definite  expo- 
sitions of  other  churches  —  the  '*  Catechism  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,"  the  ''Longer  Catechism  of 
the  Eastern  Church" — or  the  elaborate  West- 
minster Confession  and  Catechisms. 

It  was  from  these  very  things  that  the  Anglican 
Church  in  an  impressive  hour  of  the  world's 
history  was  seeking  to  escape.  The  moment 
was  a  brief  one,  but  it  sufficed  for  the  work  to  be 
done,  —  to  reduce  Christianity  to  its  simplest 
terms,  as  it  was  known  in  the  apostolic  age  or 
in  the  generation  that  folUowed.  It  was  no 
haphazard  work  they  were  doing.  To  this 
result  the  longing  aspirations  of  men  for  cen- 
turies had  been  turning.  The  best,  most  spirit- 
ual men  for  more  than  two  centuries  had  seen 
this  as  their  goal.  In  the  Providence  of  God,  it 
was  accomplished  in  the  Church  of  England. 

But  already  the  ecclesiastical  reaction  had 
begun,  and  what  was  to  be  done  must  be  done 
quickly.  Already  the  reactionary  influence  had 
invaded  England,  and  under  the  fear  that  reli- 
gion and  the  Church  were  in  danger,  expositions 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed  had  been  set  forth  in  the 
latter  years  of  Henry  VIII,  which  imposed  on 
it  definite  and  binding  interpretation,  involving 
at  every  point  the  mediaeval  or  traditional  sense 
of  the  faith.     Let  any  one  read  the  two  treatises, 


70  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

**The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,  contain- 
ing the  exposition  or  interpretation  of  the 
Common  Creed,"  etc.  (1537),  or  ''A  Necessary 
Doctrine  and  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Man" 
(1543),  and  then  turn  to  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  he  will  need  no  other  commentary 
on  the  purpose  of  the  reformers  in  the  matter 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  The  *'  Freedom  "  of  the 
Christian  man  was  their  aim,  not  his  '*  Institu- 
tion" or  ''Erudition."  It  was  the  ancient  as- 
piration—  Libera  sit  ecclesia  Anglicana,  that 
was  at  last  to  be  fulfilled. 

It  is  a  misapprehension  of  the  Anghcan  Church, 
including  our  own,  which  has  somehow  come 
to  be  widely  prevalent,  that  she  enforces  upon 
her  clergy,  however  it  may  be  with  the  laity, 
an  oath  to  receive  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  to 
believe  it  and  recite  it  with  some  authoritative 
sense  attached  to  each  phrase,  under  penalty 
of  incurring  the  stigma  of  dishonesty  and 
perjury.  And  the  burden  has  grown  the  heavier 
because  a  school  in  the  Church,  dating  from  the 
last  century,  insists  that  the  Creed  shall  be  taken 
in  what  is  now  called  its  *'CathoHc"  sense.  And 
it  has  come  about  that  those  who  should  rejoice 
in  the  Church  in  the  hberty  wherewith  Christ 
hath  made  us  free  are  sensitive  and  uncertain, 
and  even  doubt  whether  they  are  truly  called 


THE   VOWS   OF   THE   CLERGY  71 

according  to  the  will  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
to  serve  in  the  sacred  ministry  of  His  Church. 

In  the  Hterature  of  the  Church  of  England, 
there  is  a  book  rarely  if  ever  referred  to,  an 
almost  forgotten  book,  known  as  the  **HomiHes." 
It  is  the  only  book  ever  set  forth  by  authority,  of 
which  it  is  said  in  the  Thirty-fifth  of  the  Articles 
of  Religion  that  it  *'doth  contain  a  godly 
and  wholesome  doctrine  and  necessary  for  these 
times;''  and  to  this  statement  the  American 
Episcopal  Church  has  added  that  it  is  *'an 
expKcation  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  instruc- 
tive in  piety  and  morals."  It  is  referred  to 
here,  because,  in  its  origin,  it  is  contemporary 
with  the  Prayer  Book  —  those  who  drew  up  the 
Ordinal  and  the  Articles  being  among  its  com- 
pilers. To  understand  the  vows  which  the 
clergy  assume  at  ordination,  it  is  indispensable. 
It  is,  however,  chiefly  a  book  for  the  laity  — 
instructing  them  as  to  the  doctrine  of  this 
Church,  with  special  insistence  on  the  source 
from  which  the  doctrine  is  derived. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  book  of  the  Homi- 
lies that  it  nowhere  recommends  ecclesiastical 
tradition  as  an  authority  in  this  Church;  it 
contains  no  exposition  of  the  Creed.  It  has 
discourses  on  the  Nativity,  on  the  Passion,  and 
Resurrection  of  our  Lord.     The  first  of  these 


72  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

is  noticeable  for  the  absence  of  any  effort  to 
urge  the  Mediaeval  conception  of  the  Incarnation, 
which  had  become  the  source  of  confusion  and 
weakness.  The  virgin  birth  is  assumed,  but  no 
dogmatic  importance  is  attached  to  it,  and  Mary 
is  not  alluded  to  as  ''ever  Virgin  and  Mother  of 
God."  There  is  no  dwelhng  upon  the  Gospel 
of  the  Infancy,  but  rather  on  the  character  and 
work  and  teaching  of  the  mature  Christ,  Son  of 
God  and  Son  also  of  Man ;  and  if  there  is  any 
insistence  it  is  on  His  perfect  humanity,  which 
in  the  preceding  ages  had  been  obscured  and 
practically  lost. 

There  is  much  in  the  HomiHes  that  in  tone  is 
antiquated,  but  its  spirit  is  fresh  and  strong  as 
in  the  day  of  its  birth.  Its  keynote  is  the  im- 
portance of  ''the  reading  and  knowledge  of 
Holy  Scripture  "  and  not  familiarity  with  Church 
traditions.  If  men  are  in  doubt,  whether  clergy 
or  laity,  it  is  to  Scripture  they  must  turn  for 
relief.  It  is  assumed  that  the  laity  are  capable 
by  this  method  for  themselves  to  reach  the 
truth.  There  is  not  one  source  for  the  clergy 
and  another  for  the  people,  but  Scripture  is 
imposed  on  both  ahke.  The  laity  are  not  urged 
to  turn  to  the  clergy  for  light  and  satisfaction 
in  the  resolution  of  difficulties,  but  to  go  for 
themselves   to   the  Word   of  God.     The    book 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  73 

opens  with  words  like  these  addressed   to  the 
people  in  the  congregation :  — 

*'Unto  a  Christian  man  there  can  be 
nothing  either  more  necessary  or  profitable 
than  the  knowledge  of  holy  Scripture,  foras- 
much as  in  it  is  contained  God's  true  word, 
setting  forth  his  glory  and  also  man's  duty. 
And  there  is  no  truth  nor  doctrine  necessary 
for  our  justification  and  everlasting  salva- 
tion but  that  is  or  may  be  drawn  out  of 
that  fountain  and  well  of  truth.  Therefore 
as  many  as  be  desirous  to  enter  into  the 
right  and  perfect  way  unto  God,  must  apply 
their  minds  to  know  holy  Scripture;  with- 
out the  which,  they  can  neither  sufficiently 
know  God  and  his  will,  neither  their  office 
and  duty.  And  as  drink  is  pleasant  to  them 
that  be  dry  and  meat  to  them  that  be 
hungry,  so  is  the  reading,  hearing,  search- 
ing of  holy  Scripture  to  them  that  be  de- 
sirous to  know  God,  or  themselves,  and  to 
do  his  will.  .  .  .  Let  us  reverently  study 
and  read  holy  Scriptures,  which  is  the  food 
of  the  soul.  Let  us  diligently  search  for 
the  well  of  Hfe  in  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  and  not  run  to  the  stinking 
puddles  of  men's  traditions,  devised  by  men's 


74  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

imaginations  for  our  justification  and  sal- 
vation. For  in  Holy  Scripture  is  fully  con- 
tained what  we  ought  to  do,  and  what  to 
eschew,  what  to  believe,  what  to  love,  and 
what  to  look  for  at  God's  hand  at  length. 
In  these  books  we  shall  find  the  Father 
from  whom,  the  Son  by  whom,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  whom  all  things  have  their 
being  and  keeping  up ;  and  these  three  per- 
sons to  be  but  one  God  and  one  sub- 
stance." ^ 

The  object  of  the  reformers  as  achieved  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  to  get  away 
from  the  commandments  of  men,  which  had 
been  substituted  for  Christ's  commandment,  to 
get  back  again  to  Christ,  and  to  His  will,  to 
banish  and  drive  away  from  the  Church  *'the 
manifold  enormities"  and  ''the  ungodly  doc- 
trine" which  had  crept  into  the  existing  Church 
''unto  the  utter  destruction  of  innumerable 
souls,  if  God's  mercy  were  not." 

The  articles  of  the  faith  were  given  a  promi- 
nent place.  The  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and 
the  Ten  Commandments  were  to  be  read  openly 
unto  the  people,  that  '^  they  may  learn  how  to 
invocate  and  call  upon  the  name  of  God,  and 

^  "The  First  Homily,"  pp.  i,  2. 


THE   VOWS   OF   THE    CLERGY  75 

know  what  duty  they  owe  to  God  and  man,  so 
that  they  may  pray,  beheve,  and  work  accord- 
ing to  knowledge."  But  first  and  foremost  and 
above  all  was  '*the  Word  of  God,  which  is  the 
only  food  of  the  soul,  and  that  most  excellent 
light  that  we  must  walk  by  in  this  our  most 
dangerous  pilgrimage;"  and  it  is  at  all  times  to 
be  preached  to  the  people,  as  a  means  of  learn- 
ing their  duty  and  to  avoid  ''the  false  doctrine 
which  has  crept  into  the  Church  of  God." 

''Calhng  to  remembrance  that  the  next 
and  most  ready  way  to  expel  and  avoid  as 
well  all  corrupt,  vicious,  and  ungodly  living, 
as  also  erroneous  doctrine  tending  toward 
superstition  and  idolatry;  and  clearly  to 
put  away  all  contention,  which  hath  hereto- 
fore risen  through  diversity  of  preaching,  is 
the  true  setting  forth  and  pure  declaring  of 
God's  Word."  ' 

*'God  grant  all  us  ...  to  feed  of  the 
sweet  and  savoury  bread  of  God's  own  Word, 
and  (as  Christ  commanded)  to  eschew  all  our 
Pharisaical  and  papistical  leaven  of  man's 
feigned  religion;  which  although  it  were 
before  God  most  abominable  and  contrary 
to  God's  commandments  and  Christ's  pure 

^  Preface  to  the  "  Homilies,"  1547. 


76  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

religion,  yet  it  was  praised  to  be  a  most  godly- 
life  and  highest  state  of  perfection;  as 
though  a  man  might  be  more  godly  and  more 
perfect,  by  keeping  the  rules,  traditions,  and 
professions  of  men  than  by  keeping  the  holy 
commandments  of  God."^ 

In  recent  years,  with  the  revival  of  the  *' Catho- 
lic tradition"  within  the  Church,  an  undue  im- 
portance has  been  assigned  to  the  creeds.  There 
are  many  upon  whose  conscience  and  intellect 
the  details  of  the  creeds  do  not  press  heavily. 
They  are  aware  in  reciting  them  that  part  of 
their  content  makes  no  appeal  to  their  spiritual 
nature.  They  take  them  in  a  large  and  general, 
undogmatic  way,  as  a  whole,  rather  than  part 
by  part.  They  have  imbibed  the  teaching  of 
the  Church  Catechism  that  the  creeds  present 
God's  fatherhood,  Christ's  leadership  by  which 
he  delivers  humanity,  and  the  inward  presence 
of  a  Holy  Spirit  with  His  sanctifying  influence. 
They  would  fain  escape  from  the  suggestion  of 
controversy  which  the  creeds  carry  as  an  at- 
mosphere, into  the  undogmatic,  the  purer  air 
of  Holy  Scripture,  before  the  baleful  contro- 
versies began.     They  are  aware  that  interpre- 

^"  Third  part  of  the  Sermon  of  Good  Works,"  in  "Homilies/* 
p.  52,  Am.  ed.,  Philadelphia,  1844. 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  77 

tations  and  inferences  connected  by  tradition 
with  the  creeds  are  ahen  to  their  higher  spiritual 
instincts  and  tend  to  lessen  the  freedom  where- 
with Christ  hath  made  us  free. 

Such  as  these,  and  they  are  many,  are  closer  to 
the  purpose  of  our  formularies  than  those  who 
seek  to  rivet  the  chains  of  the  "Cathohc  sense" 
upon  the  freer  spirit  of  AngHcan  piety;  they 
hear  with  a  curious  surprise  that  if  they  do  not 
take  each  separate  phrase  in  a  fixed  meaning, 
as  the  ''CathoHc  sense"  has  determined,  that 
they  are  recreant  to  their  vows,  perjurers,  dis- 
honest, eating  the  Church's  bread  while  denying 
its  faith.  But  they  have  not  so  learned  the  An- 
glican Church.  Nor  were  they  aware  that  such 
dangers  lay  in  their  path,  when  as  children, 
being  now  come  to  the  years  of  discretion,  they 
professed  the  Christian  faith  at  Confirmation. 

In  their  unconscious  infancy  the  question  was 
asked  of  their  sponsors  in  baptism,  *'Dost  thou 
beheve  all  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith  as 
they  are  contained  in  the  Apostles'  Creed?" 
And  at  Confirmation  they  were  called  upon  to 
''renew  the  solemn  vow  and  promise  made  in 
their  name  at  baptism,  ratifying  and  confirming 
the  same,  and  acknowledging  themselves  bound 
to  believe  and  to  do  all  those  things  which  their 
sponsors  then  undertook  for  them." 


yS  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

The  preliminary  to  Confirmation  was  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Church  Catechism,  where  the  Creed 
was  reduced  to  its  essential  contents, — the  Divine 
name  in  its  threefoldness,  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  the  distinctive  work  of 
each.  For  the  rest,  the  Church  Catechism  had 
laid  strong  emphasis  on  the  moral  duties  of  Hfe 
and  on  the  elements  of  Christian  character. 
Nowhere  does  the  purpose  of  the  Reformers 
appear  more  clearly  than  in  the  two  concluding 
exhortations  of  the  Baptismal  office,  where  it  is 
not  the  Creed  that  is  made  prominent,  but  Chris- 
tian character;  and  baptism  is  set  forth  as  repre- 
senting unto  us  our  profession  —  to  follow  the 
example  of  our  Saviour  Christ  and  be  made  like 
unto  Him.  At  Confirmation  the  Creed  was  not 
recited,^  but  at  that  solemn  moment  the  mind 
was  centred  on  the  resolution  by  God's  grace 
"obediently  to  keep  God's  holy  will  and  com- 
mandment and  walk  in  the  same  all  the  days  of 
their  hfe." 

But  if  this  constitutes  subscription  to  the  Creed, 
it  is  binding  upon  the  laity ;  and  upon  the  clergy, 
so  far  as  they  share  with  the  laity  a  common 
obligation.     For  at  their  ordination,  the  clergy, 

^  In  the  American  Prayer  Book  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  not  re- 
cited at  baptism;  in  the  EngHsh  book  is  is  given  in  full,  in  the 
interrogative  form. 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  79 

as  has  been  said  earlier,  do  not  profess  the  Creed 
as  part  of  their  ordination  vow.  What  could 
the  Anglican  Church  have  meant  when  she  de- 
hberately  rejected  from  the  reformed  Ordinal 
that  most  sensitive  act  of  the  Roman  Ordinal, 
where  the  candidate  for  the  priesthood  solemnly, 
in  the  presence  of  the  bishop  and  before  the  altar, 
repeats  the  Apostles'  Creed  as  his  profession  of 
faith,  the  condition  as  it  were  of  his  admission 
to  holy  orders  ?  When  acts  Hke  this  are  omitted 
does  it  mean  that  the  mind  of  the  Church  is  to 
enforce  them  more  rigidly  by  its  silence  and  by 
abstention  from  all  allusion  ?  When  a  bishop  is 
consecrated  according  to  the  Roman,  or  un- 
reformed,  Ordinal,  all  the  emphasis  and  im- 
pressiveness  of  the  rite  is  concentrated  on  his 
examination  in  the  Nicene  Creed,  which  is 
applied  interrogatively  with  a  searching  rigidity. 
That,  too,  the  AngKcan  Church  omitted  from 
the  office  of  making  a  bishop. 

It  would,  indeed,  have  been  most  strange 
and  inconsistent,  if  the  authors  of  our  formu- 
laries, having  provided  no  explicit  exposition 
of  the  creeds,  beyond  the  simple  comment  in  the 
Church  Catechism,  should  have  demanded  such 
subscription,  and  such  an  oath  of  obedience  from 
the  candidates  for  her  ministry.  There  is  a 
deeper  meaning  here  and  a  profounder  purpose 


8o  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

in  the  Anglican  Church,  a  more  thoroughgoing 
reformation,  than  we  have  dared  allow  ourselves 
to  beheve  was  possible.  It  has  been  covered  up 
and  glossed  over,  but  it  remains  a  potent  influ- 
ence within  the  Church  which  cannot  be  over- 
come. 

The  method  would  have  been  a  most  simple 
and  feasible  one  had  it  been  the  aim  of  the  Or- 
dinal to  secure  a  cast-iron  oath  of  subscription 
to  the  Creed  on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  which  no 
subtlety  of  interpretation  could  have  evaded. 
Such  a  result  is  attained  in  the  Roman  Church. 
It  was  just  this  result  which  the  Anglican  re- 
formers apparently  sought  to  avoid.  A  new  light 
had  dawned  on  them  by  the  study  of  God's  Word, 
and  in  that  light  they  saw  that  the  full  conception 
of  Christ  and  His  work  could  never  be  obtained 
by  formal  subscription  to  a  creed.  A  new 
conception  of  the  Incarnation  and  its  meaning 
to  the  world  had  been  gained.  The  Church 
had  reached  its  maturity.  The  Gospel  of  the 
Infancy  which  satisfied  the  Middle  Ages  was 
no  longer  adequate,  with  the  revelation  of  Christ 
in  the  open  book  confronting  them.  They  were 
departing  from  that  view  of  the  Incarnation 
which  had  prevailed  from  the  fifth  century,  and 
which  justified  itself  by  inferences  from  the 
creeds,  till  by   long  association  it  had  become 


THE   VOWS   OF   THE   CLERGY  8i 

identified  with  them.  They  were  under  no  delu- 
sion regarding  the  value  of  the  Creed  when  com- 
pared with  the  Scripture.  Their  emphasis  was 
withdrawn  from  creeds  and  placed  on  Scripture, 
to  which  the  candidate  for  the  ministry  of  this 
Church  was  called  to  give  his  entire  and  unre- 
served allegiance. 

What  vows  then  has  the  Anglican  Church 
substituted  for  the  subscription  to  the  Creeds 
which  was  the  fundamental  vow  of  the  Ordinal 
before  the  Reformation  ? 

"Are  you  persuaded  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures contain  all  doctrine  required  as  neces- 
sary for  eternal  salvation  through  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  ?  And  are  you  determined  out 
of  said  Scriptures  to  instruct  the  people  com- 
mitted to  your  charge :  and  to  teach  nothing 
as  necessary  to  eternal  salvation,  but  that 
which  you  shall  be  persuaded  may  be  con- 
cluded and  proved  by  the  Scripture  ? 

**  Will  you  then  give  your  faithful  diligence 
so  to  minister  the  Doctrine  and  the  Sacra- 
ments and  the  Discipline  of  Christ  as  the 
Lord  hath  commanded  and  as  this  Church 
hath  received  the  same,  according  to  the 
commandments  of  God? 

*'Will  you  be  ready  with  all  faithful  dili- 


82  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

genet  to  banish  and  drive  away  from  the 
Church  all  erroneous  and  strange  doctrine 
contrary  to  God's  Word  ?  .  .  . 

"Will  you  be  diligent  in  prayers  and  in 
reading  Holy  Scriptures,  and  in  such  studies 
as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the  same  ? ''  ^ 

No  one  of  these  vows  was  in  the  Ordinal 
before  the  Reformation.  They  must  be  taken 
together.  In  reality  they  form  but  one  vow, 
whose  purpose  is  to  elevate  Scripture  above 
tradition  and  by  so  doing  to  make  the  Church 
of  England  free. 

It  has  somehow  come  to  be  taken  for  granted 
by  many  that  there  is  a  conflict  here,  —  that  the 
first  vow  which  calls  for  private  or  individual 
judgment  and  persuasion  as  to  the  teaching  of 
Scripture  is  one  horn  of  a  dilemma,  and  that  the 
other  horn  on  which  we  are  in  danger  of  being 
impaled  is  ''the  doctrine  as  this  Church  hath 
received  the  same";  and  that  if  there  is  any 
reconcihation  possible  of  this  contradiction,  it 

*  In  the  Ordering  of  Deacons  is  contained  the  question,  "Do 
you  unfeignedly  beheve  all  the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  ?"  Here  the  purpose  is  clear  not  to  exclude 
from  the  Bible,  as  "the  Word  of  God,  containing  all  things  necessary 
to  salvation,"  any  of  the  books  recognized  in  the  Articles  (Art.  VI) 
as  canonical.  Equally  clear  is  the  purpose  which  shuts  out  the 
Apocryphal  books  from  the  Canon. 


THE   VOWS    OF    THE    CLERGY  83 

must  be  attained  by  subordinating  one's  conclu- 
sions about  truth  drawn  from  the  Scripture  to 
"'the  doctrine  as  this  Church  hath  received  the 
same."  And  those  who  rest  upon  this  second 
vow  as  the  more  important  keep  a  vigilant  eye 
upon  those  who  think  their  primal  duty  is  to 
preach  from  the  depth  of  their  inward  conviction. 
But  there  is  no  conflict  between  the  vows. 
They  have  the  same  common  aim.  It  is  a  super- 
ficial and  unhistorical  view,  and  does  grave  in- 
justice to  the  authors  of  the  Ordinal,  to  think 
that  they  could  hamper  the  clergy  by  such  a 
dilemma  or  entangle  them  on  such  a  snag. 
The  moment  was  too  critical,  the  danger  too 
great ;  the  fortunes  of  the  realm  and  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  England  were  at  stake  when 
the  Ordinal  was  put  forth.  There  is  deep  sin- 
cerity and  painstaking  unity  of  purpose  in  the 
various  forms  of  what  really  is  but  one  vow  of 
the  clergy  in  the  reformed  Ordinal.  To  minister 
the  doctrine  as  this  Church  hath  received  the 
same,  does  not  mean  as  it  hath  received  it  from 
tradition,  thus  identifying  the  Reformed  Church 
with  the  Church  of  the  past ;  but  the  doctrine 
as  set  forth  in  the  Articles  of  Religion,  whose 
object  at  every  turn  is  to  protest  against  the 
errors  involved  in  the  commandments  of  men, 
which  Rome  had  added  to  the  Christian  faith,  — 


84  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

its  gross  anthropomorphism,  its  inadequate  con- 
ception of  the  Incarnation,  its  elevation  of  tra- 
dition to  an  equaUty  with  Scripture,  its  neglect 
of  the  study  of  Scripture,  its  perversion  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  into  a  sacrificial  mass,  its  irrational 
and  unscriptural  doctrine  of  transubstantiation, 
its  mutilated  administration  of  the  holy  com- 
munion, its  injury  done  to  the  discipHne  of 
Christ  by  the  practice  of  compulsory  confession, 
and  by  monastic  vows  of  celibacy.  To  guard 
against  these  things  is  one  object  in  requiring  of 
the  clergy  that  they  shall  minister  the  doctrine 
as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same. 

The  purport  of  this  vow  becomes  clearer,  if 
all  the  phraseology,  which  accompanies  it,  is 
taken  into  consideration.  A  closer  study  shows 
where  the  emphasis  hes.  It  is  the  *' doctrine 
(of  Christ)  and  sacraments  (of  Christ)  and  dis- 
cipline of  Christ,  as  the  Lord  hath  commanded 
and  as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same 
according  to  the  commandments  of  God/' 

A  good  commentary  on  these  words  may  be 
found  by  turning  again  to  that  contemporaneous 
treatise,  **The  Homilies,"  which  has  much  to 
say  about  the  commandments  of  God  as  over 
against  the  commandments  of  the  Church  or 
of  men.  Speaking  of  the  previous  age  and  of 
the    ecclesiastical    conditions    from    which    the 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  85 

Reformation  was    liberating    men,  the    homily 
'* Of  good  works"  remarks:  — 

''Such  hath  been  the  corrupt  incHnation  of 
man,  ever  superstitiously  given  to  make  new 
honouring  of  God  of  his  own  head,  and  then 
to  have  more  affection  and  devotion  to  keep 
that  than  to  search  out  God's  holy  command- 
ments and  to  keep  them.  And  furthermore, 
to  take  God's  commandments  for  men's 
commandments,  and  men's  commandments 
for  God's  commandments,  yea,  and  for  the 
highest  and  most  perfect  and  holy  of  all 
God's  commandments.  And  so  was  all 
confused,  that  scant  well  learned  men,  and 
but  a  small  number  of  them  knew,  or  at  the 
least  would  know,  and  durst  affirm  the  truth, 
to  separate  or  sever  God's  commandments  from 
the  commandments  of  men.  Wherefore  did 
grow  much  error,  superstition,  idolatry, 
vain  religion,  overthwart  {preposterous) 
judgment,  great  contention  with  all  ungodly 
living.''     (''The  Homilies,"  p.  53.) 

Passages  of  this  kind  abound  in  ''The  Homi- 
lies."    Another  may  be  cited:  — 

''Nowhere  can  we  more  certainly  search 
for  the  knowledge  of  this  will  of  God  but  in 


86  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

the  Holy  Scriptures,  for  they  be  they  that 
testify  of  him,  saith  our  Saviour  Christ.  .  .  . 
We  see  what  vanity  the  school-doctrine  is 
mixed  with,  for  that  in  this  Word  they 
sought  not  the  will  of  God,  but  rather  the  will 
of  reason,  the  trade  of  custom,  the  path  of 
the  fathers^  the  practice  of  the  Church:  let 
us  therefore  read  and  revolve  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures both  day  and  night,  for  blessed  is  he 
who  hath  his  whole  meditation  therein/' 
("Homihes,"  p.  435.) 

The  phrases,  then,  so  often  omitted,  when 
reference  is  made  to  the  vow  of  the  clergy,  are 
of  supreme  importance  to  its  correct  interpreta- 
tion. It  is  not  merely  the  ''doctrine  as  this 
Church  hath  received  the  same"  but  ''the  doc- 
trine of  Christy  as  the  Lord  hath  commanded,  and 
as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same  according 
to  the  commandments  of  God/'  If  this  qualifica- 
tion be  kept  in  view  there  is  no  conflict,  but 
entire  harmony  with  the  preceeding  vow,  "to 
teach  nothing  but  what  you  shall  be  persuaded 
may  be  concluded  and  proved  by  the  Scripture." 

The  connection  between  the  vows,  which 
identifies  them  as  having  one  common  end  and 
meaning,  is  further  evidenced  by  the  word 
"then;''   ''will  you /^^«,"  or  will  you   therefore, 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  87 

seeing  that  you  have  already  grasped  the  essen- 
tial truth,  that  all  doctrine  must  come  from 
the  teaching  of  Christ  contained  in  Scripture, 
with  an  inward  persuasion  of  its  truth  —  will 
you  then  minister  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  as 
Christ  hath  commanded,  and  as  this  Church 
hath  received  it  from  Him,  and  proclaims  it, 
holding  it  according  to  God's  commandments, 
and  not  from  tradition,  or  the  commandments 
of  men.  And  lest  there  should  be  a  danger  of 
falling  into  conventional  ways  and  stereotyped 
opinions,  as  to  what  Scripture  teaches,  another 
vow  is  exacted  calling  for  its  continual  study,  as 
the  Hfe  work  of  the  ministry.  No  allusion  is 
here  to  the  study  of  tradition  or  to  decisions  of 
synods,  however  imposing,  or  to  the  voice  of  the 
fathers  in  ancient  times;  but  *'will  you  be  dili- 
gent *  *  *  in  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  in 
such  studies  as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
same  V  One  must  turn  to  the  Greek  and  Ro- 
man Ordinals  to  measure  the  significance  of 
this  impressive  vow  by  the  contrast  they  offer. 
In  the  Greek  office  is  a  special  question  to  the 
candidate  for  episcopal  consecration, — which 
is  answered  at  very  great  length,  —  *' Ex- 
plain how  thou  boldest  the  Canons  of  the  Holy 
Apostles  and  the  Holy  Fathers."  And  indeed 
in  both  Greek  and  Latin  Ordinals,  the  bishop 


88  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

elect  (of  the  presbyter,  little  account  is  taken) 
seems  to  be  called  upon  mainly  to  fight  over 
again  the  theological  issues  of  the  ancient 
Church  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 

There  is  then  no  evidence  to  be  drawn,  from 
the  vows  which  the  clergy  assume  in  ordination, 
that  the  Creed  was,  as  in  some  feeling  of  emer- 
gency, an  object  of  solicitude,  or  that  it  was  re- 
garded as  binding  upon  the  clergy  and  not 
equally  binding  on  the  laity.  The  vow  of  the 
clergy  to  maintain  the  doctrine  of  Christ  as  this 
Church  hath  received  it  sends  them  back  to 
Christ,  —  as  the  Lord  hath  commanded,  —  in 
order  to  learn  the  doctrine  received  by  the  Church 
according  to  the  commandments  of  God  and 
not  according  to  the  traditions  of  men. 

Further  evidence  for  the  truth  of  this  position 
is  seen  in  the  circumstance  that  from  the  Refor- 
mation down  to  our  own  day  the  oath  of  sub- 
scription in  the  Church  of  England  has  been 
taken  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  not  to 
creeds  as  such.  Incumbents  of  parishes  and 
students  admitted  to  the  universities  were  re- 
quired to  make  this  subscription.  Of  the  Creeds 
it  is  said  in  the  Vlllth  Article  that  they  ought 
"thoroughly  to  be  received  and  believed,"  but 
the  reason  added  is  significant,  *' because  they 
may  be  proved  by  most  certain  warrant  of  Holy 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE   CLERGY  89 

Scripture.  Testing  the  creeds  by  Scripture  may 
lead  to  a  larger  and  truer  interpretation  of 
their  meaning  than  when  they  are  interpreted 
by  tradition  dating  from  the  fifth  century  and 
received  on  the  authority  of  such  tradition. 
The  Vlllth  Article  is  further  quahfied  by  the 
comment  on  the  primary  intent  of  the  Creed  as 
given  in  the  Church  Catechism.  Another  quali- 
fication will  be  noted  in  the  following  chapter. 

In  reference  to  the  subject  of  subscription 
any  allusion  to  it  would  be  incomplete  without 
mention  of  the  present  *' relaxed"  form  of  sub- 
cription,  which  in  the  English  Church  has  been 
substituted  for  the  earher  more  stringent  form. 
For  two  centuries,  or  since  1662,  the  form  was, 
**I  hereby  declare  my  unfeigned  assent  and  con- 
sent to  all  and  everything  prescribed  in  and  by 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer."^     In  1865  the 


^According  to  the  Canons  of  the  Church  of  England,  1604,  it 
reads  (Canon  xxxvi):  "No  one  shall  hereafter  be  received  into  the 
ministry,  ...  or  admitted  to  any  ecclesiastical  living,  nor  suffered 
to  preach,  etc.,  unless  he  shall  subscribe  to  these  three  articles 
following :  — 

"  I .  (As  this  article  relates  to  the  King's  supremacy  it  is  sufficient 
only  to  allude  to  it  here.) 

"  2.  That  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  of  ordering  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  containeth  in  it  nothing  contrary  to  the  Word 
of  God,  and  that  it  may  be  lawfully  so  used;  and  that  he  himself 
will  use  the  form  in  the  said  book  prescribed,  in  public  prayer, 
and  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  and  none  other. 


90  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

form  was  changed  to  read,  "I  assent  to  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  and  to  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer."  The  first  of  these  forms  of  sub- 
scription dates  from  1662,  when  the  object  of 
the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  to  eject  Nonconform- 
ists from  the  Church.  After  any  danger  in  this 
direction  had  ceased,  there  began  an  agitation, 
continued  through  the  eighteenth  century,  for  a 
more  relaxed  and  general  form  of  subscription. 
In  the  American  Episcopal  Church,  which  in- 
herited a  strong  tendency  toward  relaxation  at 
the  time  when  the  Prayer  Book  was  put  forth 
in  1789,  the  relaxed  form  of  subscription  reads, 
*'I  do  solemnly  engage  to  conform  to  the  doc- 
trines and  worship  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States."  This  form  of 
subscription  was  regarded  as  a  great  advantage 
gained  over  the  Enghsh  form.  In  the  present 
form  of  the  Enghsh  subscription  oath,  the  drop- 
ping of  consent,  and  retaining  only  assent,  points 

"  3.  That  he  alloweth  the  Book  of  Articles  of  ReHgion,  agreed 
upon  by  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  both  provinces  and  the 
whole  clergy,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God  1562;  and  that  he 
acknowledgeth  all  and  every  the  articles  therein  contained  ...  to 
be  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God. 

"  To  these  three  articles  whoever  will  subscribe,  he  shall  for  the 
avoiding  of  ambiguities  subscribe  in  this  order  and  form  of  words, 
setting  down  both  his  Christian  and  surname  :  I,  N.  N.,  do  willingly 
and  ex  animo  subscribe  to  these  three  articles  above  mentioned, 
and  to  all  things  contained  in  them." 


THE   VOWS   OF   THE   CLERGY  91 

strongly  in  the  direction  of  relaxation,  and  of 
relief  for  '*  troubled  consciences."  But  Maurice 
may  have  been  right  when  he  maintained  in 
1834  that  subscription  to  the  Articles  was  a 
''defence  of  Hberty."  And  in  1852,  although  he 
had  in  some  respects  changed  his  mind  in  regard 
to  their  subscription,  he  could  still  write,  ''I 
am  more  convinced  than  ever  that  the  Articles 
are  more  comprehensive  (being  also  less  loose 
and  capricious)  than  the  dogmas  of  our  dif- 
ferent parties,  and  that  we  should  be  far  more 
at  the  mercy  of  the  most  intolerant  private  judg- 
ments and  pubHc  opinion  if  we  lost  them."  ^ 
These  words  sound  hke  a  prophecy  of  what 
would  be  attempted  in  our  own  generation. 
But  it  must  be  admitted  and  maintained  if 
possible,  that  when  the  Church  after  long  deUb- 
eration  ''relaxes"  the  form  of  subscription,  it 
does  not  intend  that  advantage  shall  be  taken 
of  the  relaxation  to  make  the  oath  more  stringent 
and  inclusive  than  before,  or  that  any  party  in 
the  Church  shall  be  thereby  enabled  to  fasten  on 
the  clergy  its  own  rigid  conception  of  what  the 
subscription  oath  involves. 

It  is  not  wise,  and  certainly  it  is  not  the  spirit  of 
Christian  charity,  to  fling  the  accusation  of  dis- 

^  "Life  of  Maurice,"  vol.  i,  p.  168,  and  vol.  ii,  p.  154. 


92  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

honesty  against  the  clergy.  And  if  it  is  brought 
against  the  clergy,  it  must  be  laid  with  equal 
justice  against  the  laity.  The  AngHcan  Church 
makes  no  discrimination  between  them  in  the 
matter  of  reciting  or  professing  the  Creed. 

But  surely  the  appeal,  when  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Creed  is  at  issue,  should  not  be  car- 
ried to  the  man  on  the  street.  Commercial  tests 
are  not  the  standard  for  judging  religious  con- 
victions or  deciding  on  their  accordance  with 
theological  formularies.  It  is  rather  to  human 
documents  that  we  must  go,  if  we  would  make 
comparison,  such  as  written  constitutions  of  the 
State,  capable  of  diverse  and  even  interpreta- 
tions absolutely  contradicting  each  other;  or 
to  legal  formulas  or  statutes  which  have  been 
stretched  to  cover  cases  never  originally  con- 
templated. Human  preference  and  usage  in 
these  departments  of  Hfe  has  shown  itself  reluc- 
tant to  make  new  constitutions  or  new  statutes 
when  the  old  can  be  so  construed  as  to  include 
the  new  experience.  In  this  way  jurisprudence 
has  grown.  For  it  seems  to  shake  the  sanctions 
of  law,  if  it  should  appear  that  the  old  statutes 
did  not  cover  the  whole  range  of  human  interests. 
This  has  been  called  '*  legal  fiction,"  but  it  repre- 
sents a  process  by  which  law  has  been  developed. 
In  his  ''Ancient  Law,"  Sir  Henry  Maine  has 


THE    VOWS   OF   THE    CLERGY  93 

made  some  important  remarks,  which  are  not 
without  their  bearing  on  the  history  of  creeds. 

*^ Legal  fiction  signifies  any  assumption, 
which  conceals  or  affects  to  conceal,  the 
fact  that  a  rule  of  law  has  undergone  altera- 
tion, its  letter  remaining  unchanged,  its 
operation  being  modified.  .  .  .  The  law 
has  been  wholly  changed;  the  *  fiction'  is 
that  it  remains  what  it  always  was.  .  .  . 
Fictions  in  all  their  forms  are  particularly 
congenial  to  the  infancy  of  society.  They 
satisfy  the  desire  for  improvement,  which  is 
not  quite  wanting,  at  the  same  time  that 
they  do  not  offend  the  superstitious  dis- 
relish for  change  which  is  always  present. 
At  a  particular  stage  of  social  progress, 
they  are  invaluable  expedients  for  over- 
coming the  rigidity  of  law.  ...  To  revile 
them  as  merely  fraudulent  is  to  betray 
ignorance  of  their  pecuHar  office  in  the  his- 
torical development  of  law.  .  .  .  There  are 
several  fictions  still  exercising  a  powerful 
influence  on  English  jurisprudence,  which 
could  not  be  discarded  without  a  severe 
shock  to  the  ideas,  and  considerable  change 
in  the  language  of  English  practitioners.  .  .  . 
Nothing  is  more  distasteful  to  men,  either 


94  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

as  individuals  or  as  masses,  than  the  ad- 
mission of  their  moral  progress  as  a  sub- 
stantive reahty.  This  unw^iUingness  shows 
itself,  as  regards  individuals,  in  the  exagger- 
ated respect  which  is  ordinarily  paid  to  the 
doubtful  virtue  of  consistency.  The  move- 
ment of  the  collective  opinion  of  a  whole 
society  is  too  palpable  to  be  ignored  and  is 
generally  too  visibly  for  the  better  to  be  de- 
cried ;  but  there  is  the  greatest  disincHnation 
to  accept  it  as  a  primary  phenomenon,  and 
it  is  commonly  explained  as  the  recovery  of 
a  lost  perfection  —  the  gradual  return  to  a 
state  from  which  the  race  had  lapsed.  This 
tendency  to  look  backward  instead  of 
forward  produced  anciently,  as  we  have  seen, 
on  Roman  jurisprudence  effects  the  most 
serious  and  permanent."     (Pp.  26,  32,  ^^y 

67.) 

If  the  same  distinction  be  carried  into  the 
sphere  of  theology,  then  there  would  be  theo- 
logical ''fictions,"  such  as  maintaining  that  the 
Creeds  are  immutable  in  their  meaning,  while 
in  such  clauses  as  the  ''descent  into  hell,"  or  the 
"Cathohc  Church,"  or  the  "resurrection  of  the 
flesh,"  not  to  mention  others,  their  meaning  has 
been    revolutionized.     But    to    stigmatize    this 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE   CLERGY  95 

process  as  dishonest  would  involve  bringing  an 
indictment  against  the  whole  process  of  religious 
development. 

The  opinion,  then,  of  the  man  on  the  street  has 
but  Httle  value  on  the  question  of  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Creeds.  The  subject  is  too  subtle, 
too  compHcated;  it  involves  also  the  possibility 
of  real  meanings,  and  apparent  meanings,  of  un- 
conscious modifications,  under  the  influence  of 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  which  is  forever  changing. 
To  ask  a  Roman  Cathohc  what  his  judgment 
would  be  on  the  inversion  of  meaning  in  the 
phrase,*' the  Holy  Catholic  Church,"  would  bring 
an  answer  condemning  the  Anglican  Church  to 
the  guilt  of  dishonest  subterfuge  and  evasion. 
But  such  a  verdict  would  have  httle  significance, 
although  to  his  mind  it  would  be  a  question  of 
simple  honesty — professing  to  believe  in  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church  when  the  historic  sense  of 
the  phrase  had  been  abandoned. 

There  is  no  universally  recognized  court  of 
appeal  in  organized  Christianity  to  which  these 
questions  can  be  submitted,  in  the  confidence  of 
an  intelligent,  impartial,  and  satisfactory  judg- 
ment. And  certainly,  least  of  all,  can  the 
judgment  of  those  have  any  value,  who,  having 
discarded  creeds,  insist  that  honesty  in  others 
who  retain  them  calls  for  rigid  adherence  to  their 


96  FREEDOM    IN  THE   CHURCH 

face  meaning  and  in  the  most  literal  fashion, 
regardless  of  the  variety  of  interpretation  which 
history  has  sanctioned.  The  object  of  those  who 
seek  in  this  way  to  impugn  the  honesty  of  the 
clergy  is  clear  enough;  they  are  performing  a 
double  duty,  not  only  advocating  honesty  and 
sincerity  in  general,  but  making  it  so  disagreeable 
a  task  where  creeds  are  concerned  as  to  lead  to 
the  abandonment  of  creeds  altogether.  Which 
of  these  two  motives  predominates,  it  is  not 
necessary  here  to  determine.  But  any  one  who 
looks  a  little  closely  into  the  matter  may  be  ex- 
cused for  thinking  that  this  unattainable  ethical 
standard  for  creed  subscription,  urged  by  those 
who  have  rejected  creeds,  involves  a  primary 
purpose  in  controversial  theology,  or  sectarian 
rivalry. 

There  are  other  illustrations  in  history  which 
show  that  the  accusation  of  dishonesty  against 
the  clergy  must  be  taken  at  least  with  some 
qualifications.  In  the  ecclesiastical  as  in  the 
poHtical  sphere,  it  may  be  possible  that  the  use 
of  such  strong  terms,  as  dishonesty,  perjury, 
treachery,  too  often  repeated,  and  against  per- 
sons of  otherwise  upright  character,  will  lose 
their  force  and  come  to  have  a  merely  par- 
tisan meaning.  Thus  the  charge  of  breaking 
the  solemn  vows  of  consecration  to  the  epis- 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  97 

copate  was  brought  against  Archbishop  Cran- 
mer  and  other  EngUsh  bishops  —  to  say  nothing 
of  the  large  number  of  EngHsh  clergy  —  and 
against  professed  monks  in  the  Reformation 
who  broke  their  monastic  vows.  The  mind  of 
Cathohc  Europe  was  aghast  at  Martin  Luther, 
who  threw  his  ordination  and  monastic  vows  to 
the  winds,  as  having  no  obhgation  whatever  on 
a  free  Christian  man  who  had  rediscovered  the 
true  Gospel  of  Christ.  Another  illustration  may 
be  cited  as  bearing  on  the  question  of  clerical 
honesty  in  more  recent  times. 

In  the  Autobiography  of  Isaac  WiUiams,  who 
was  a  friend  of  the  late  Cardinal  Newman,  is 
this  statement  (p.  125):  ''Newman  said  to 
Copeland,  'Could  you  sign  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles?  I  could  not.'"  But  this  was  in 
Newman's  Anglican  days,  and  he  had  already 
made  his  subscription  to  the  Articles.  His 
mind  was  undergoing  a  change,  he  had  really 
repudiated  the  Articles,  but  he  did  not  propose 
in  consequence  to  leave  the  Church  of  England. 
His  thought  was  moving  Romewards,  some  of 
his  disciples  had  already  left  the  Church  of 
England  for  Rome  and  others  were  preparing 
to  follow.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles,  taken  in 
the  sense  of  their  compilers,  made  it  impossible 
for  them  to  remain.     Then  Newman  was  moved 


98  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

to  assault  the  citadel  of  Anglican  liberty,  not  from 
without  but  from  within.  He  wrote  a  treatise, 
the  famous  Tract  XC,  in  which  he  aimed 
to  show  that  the  Articles  had  been  so  loosely  or 
inadvertently  drawn  that  they  might  be  gram- 
matically construed  into  a  sense  opposite  to 
their  original  purport.  By  the  aid  of  his  un- 
rivalled dialectic,  he  traversed  the  Articles  and 
reversed  their  meaning,  till  it  almost  seemed  as 
if  the  object  of  the  Protestant  reformers  had 
been  to  reunite  the  Anglican  Church  with  the 
Church  of  Rome.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  were 
made  to  seem  patient  of  an  interpretation  which 
harmonized  them  with  the  definitions  of  the 
Council  of  Trent.  It  is  a  familiar  story  —  the 
consternation  into  which  England  was  thrown, 
which  finds  its  only  parallel  in  the  ancient 
church,  in  the  time  of  the  Arian  controversy. 
From  that  moment  Newman's  days  in  the  Angli- 
can Church  were  numbered.  But  nothing  that 
he  ever  wrote  or  confessed  showed  that  the 
attempt  to  undo  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  rested 
upon  his  conscience.  His  devoted  friend  and 
admirer,  Dr.  Pusey,  who  refused  to  follow  him, 
defended  the  effort  to  *' reinterpret"  the  Articles. 
On  the  basis  of  this  reinterpretation,  which  re- 
versed their  original  purport,  many  were  enabled 
to  remain  in  the  Church  of  England  who  must 


THE   VOWS    OF   THE    CLERGY  99 

Otherwise  have  left.  From  this  time  a  ''  CathoHc  " 
sense  was  imposed  on  the  formularies  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  apparently  with 
a  clear  conscience.  A  new  school  arose  who 
appropriated  as  their  own  the  Anghcan  Church, 
making  it  over  to  suit  their  own  convenience, 
till  at  last  those  who  sought  to  stand  on  the 
foundations  of  the  Reformation  appeared  as  no 
better  than  traitors  to  God  and  humanity. 

In  questions  about  the  interpretation  of  the 
Creed,  the  judgment  of  the  ''man  on  the  street'* 
has  no  value,  even  though  it  find  vigorous  and 
severe  expression  in  the  utterances  of  the  secular 
press.  For  the  ''man  on  the  street  does  not  care 
a  rap  about  dogmatic  formularies  and  subtle- 
ties," and  it  is  just  these  very  things  which  are 
at  issue.  In  the  matter  of  religion,  no  amount 
of  business  training  or  skill  in  journalism  or 
knowledge  of  affairs  is  of  any  avail.  Religion 
has  its  own  laws,  it  is  guided  by  deep  motives, 
which  only  those  interested  or,  as  it  were,  ob- 
sessed by  them  can  understand. 

Let  us  take  an  example.  In  Old  Testament 
history  we  read  how  the  brethren  of  Joseph  sold 
him  a  captive  to  traders  going  down  into  Egypt. 
They  acted  with  a  definite  purpose  and  for  this 
very  end.  They  were  responsible  for  their  deed. 
But  when,  years  afterward,  they  themselves  were 


100  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

forced  to  go  to  Egypt  because  of  the  famine,  they 
encountered  their  brother  in  a  high  official 
position,  and  they  were  afraid  in  consequence 
of  their  evil  act.  And  Joseph  said  unto  them, 
'^ Now  it  was  not  you  that  brought  me  hither,  but 
God."  What  would  the  verdict  of  the  ''man  on 
the  street"  be,  when,  knowing  the  circumstances, 
he  was  confronted  with  this  statement  ^  To  his 
mind  it  would  seem  as  plain  as  daylight  that 
Joseph  was  guilty  of  falsehood  in  denying  what 
was  a  simple  matter  of  fact.  But  in  Joseph's 
mind,  the  matter  of  fact  had  faded  away  into 
legend  or  myth  or  unreahty,  and  only  the  spirit- 
ual reality  behind  the  fact  remained. 


CHAPTER  IV 

INTERPRETATION   OF  THE    VIRGIN-BIRTH   IN 
THE    ANCIENT    CHURCH 

''The  truth  of  a  Creed,"  said  Coleridge, 
''must  be  tried  by  the  Holy  Scripture;  but  the 
sense  of  the  Creed  by  the  known  sentiments  and 
inferred  intentions  of  its  compilers."  It  is  not 
with  its  truth,  then,  as  tested  by  Holy  Scripture, 
but  with  its  sense,  that  we  are  concerned,  as 
we  come  to  the  clause  "born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary."  The  apparent  meaning  may  not  have 
been  the  original  purpose  and  intention.  There 
is  evidence  tending  to  show  that  the  primary 
object  in  alluding  to  the  birth  of  Christ  was  to 
maintain  the  reality  of  His  human  birth.  His  birth 
of  a  woman  whose  name  is  given,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  His  death  the  name  of  Pontius  Pilate  is 
mentioned  in  order  to  verify  the  fact.  The  Creed 
is  chiefly  concerned  at  this  point  with  the  asser- 
tion of  the  full  humanity  of  Christ,  not  of  His 
divinity.  In  a  later  age  when  the  controver- 
sies of  the  second  century  had  been  forgotten, 
another   interpretation   was    placed    upon    this 

lOI 


102  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

clause,  which  put  the  stress  upon  the  Virgin- 
birth.  But  meantime  great  changes  had  passed 
over  the  Church,  and  in  consequence  of  them 
the  original  sense  of  the  Creed  had  been  lost. 

In  the  earliest  form  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,^ 
which  is  known  among  students  of  the  creeds 
as  the  Old  Roman  Creed,  originating  in  Rome, 
it  is  thought,  about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century,  the  clause  had  not  yet  been  inserted  — 
''conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  That  may 
have  been  added  a  generation  or  more  later. 
The  related  clauses  of  the  Creed  then  ran  in 
the  earliest  form :  — 

''Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate,  and  buried,  rose  again  from 
the  dead  on  the  third  day." 

Birth,  death,  and  resurrection  as  actual  and 
historic  facts  are  thus  grouped  together.     Here 

^  The  best  book  of  reference  for  the  ancient  creeds  and  rules  of 
faith  is  Hahn,  "Bibliothek  der  Symbole,"  1897.  As  it  is  not  in- 
tended here  to  make  any  special  study  of  the  creeds,  the  reader 
may  be  referred  for  the  bibliography  to  Dr.  McGifFert,  "The 
Apostles'  Creed,"  pp.  3-5.  Caspari's  exhaustive  studies,  covering 
many  years,  have  been  succeeded  by  the  very  important  work  of 
Kattenbusch,  "Das  Apostolische  Symbol,"  Bd.  i,  1894;  Bd.  ii, 
1900.  Among  works  from  the  Anglican  point  of  view  may  be 
mentioned:  Heurtley,  "Harmonia  Symbolica"  and  "  De  fide  et 
Symbolo";  Swainson,  "The  Nicene  and  Apostles'  Creeds";  also 
SchaflF's  "Creeds  of  Christendom." 


INTERPRETATION    OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    103 

may  be  noted  the  position  of  the  early  Catholic 
Church  as  compared  with  the  preaching  of  the 
ApostoHc  Age,  that  it  added  the  birth  of  Christ 
to  His  passion  and  resurrection,  giving  to  it  an 
equal  place.  According  to  the  emphatic  decla- 
ration of  St.  Paul,  the  ''rule  of  faith"  included 
only  the  passion  and  the  resurrection:  — 

*'For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that 
which  I  also  received,  how  that  Christ  died 
for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and 
that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose  again 
according  to  the  Scriptures.' 


'>  1 


The  early  apostolic  preaching  was  chiefly 
concerned  with  the  significance  of  the  death  of 
Christ.  But  in  the  old  Roman  Creed  it  is  the 
fact  of  the  death  that  is  important,  and  no  inter- 
pretation is  offered.  And  to  the  fact  of  the  death 
is  added  the  fact  of  the  birth  of  Christ,  as 
together  constituting  the  assertion  of  His  actual 
humanity,  and  the  reality  of  His  earthly  life. 
The  outlook  had  changed  for  the  Church  when 
it  began  to  take  possession  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire.    The  emphasis  of  St.  Paul  was  no  longer 

^  Cf.  also  2  Tim.  ii,  8,  for  what  Zahn  thinks  belonged  to  a 
formula  of  St.  Paul :  "Remember  that  Jesus  Christ  of  the  seed  of 
David  was  raised  from  the  dead  according  to  my  gospel." 


104  FREEDOM    IN    THE    CHURCH 

the  emphasis  required  by  the  Church  for  the 
successful  prosecution  of  its  work.  The  CathoHc 
Church  was  encountering  dreams  and  imagina- 
tions, fantasies  of  rehgious  creation,  myths,  a 
whole  world  of  unrealities.  The  religious  faith 
of  the  heathens  reposed  in  beings  who  were 
fictions  only,  and  had  never  existed;  the  reli- 
gious imagination  of  the  time  was  most  prolific ; 
but  what  the  world  needed  and  wanted  was 
reality.  Of  none  of  these  deities  whom  men  were 
vainly  worshipping  could  it  be  said  they  had 
actually  existed. 

Here  lay  the  opportunity  and  motive  of  the 
Church  as  it  began  its  conquest  of  the  empire  — 
to  assert  that  the  Son  of  God  had  actually  and 
truly  been  born  into  the  world  of  human  life 
as  a  man,  and  had  actually  suffered  and  died  on 
the  cross.  The  interpretation  of  these  facts 
was  simple  and  intelligible  enough,  if  the  facts 
only  were  established  and  accepted. 

But  not  only  was  the  need  of  reality  the  most 
urgent  need  of  the  heathen  world,  but  within  the 
Church  itself  there  was  a  pressing  demand  for  the 
actual  historic  fact,  in  order  to  overcome  the 
vicious  tendency  of  the  religious  imagination, 
taken  over  from  the  heathen  world,  to  get  rid 
of  facts,  in  order  to  give  the  imagination  a  chance 
to  soar.     Hence  the  chief  danger  to  the  Church 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    105 

in  the  second  century  was  from  within,  from 
those  who  denied  the  fact  of  Christ's  humanity, 
who  ideahzed  away  His  birth  or  His  death ;  who 
made  Him  a  phantom  or  a  vision,  by  which  new 
thought  had  been  imparted  and  a  new  stimulus 
given  to  hfe.  To  this  way  of  looking  at  Christ 
as  humanity  personified  or  idealized,  there  was 
added  another  tendency  more  dangerous  still 
to  true  religion  —  that  human  life  was  a  low, 
unworthy  thing,  that  no  divine  being  could  de- 
scend so  low  as  to  take  a  human  body,  that 
humian  desires  and  passions  were  evil.  If  we 
should  say  that  in  the  various  forms  of  Gnosti- 
cism, Oriental  religion,  and  particularly  Bud- 
dhism, was  seeking  an  entrance  into  the  empire 
through  the  Christian  Church,  we  should  not  be 
far  from  the  truth ;  or  if  we  were  grateful  to  the 
old  Roman  Creed,  because  it  made  an  emphatic 
and  successful  protest  against  Buddhism  and 
saved  the  world  from  the  calamity  of  its  gospel 
of  despair,  our  gratitude  would  not  be  misplaced. 
The  chief  error  against  which  the  Roman 
Creed  was  protesting  is  known  as  Docetism  — 
the  doctrine  that  Christ  did  not  have  a  body  or  a 
human  birth  or  an  actual  death.  The  Doce- 
tists  were  not  averse  to  the  gospel  of  the  infancy 
or  to  the  miraculous  conception  and  birth  of 
Christ,  for  they  could  easily  in  ways  of  their 


io6  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

own  adjust  a  miraculous  birth  to  their  own  pur- 
pose, as  no  real  birth,  and  they  were  willing  to 
admit  that  Jesus  might  in  some  transcendent 
way  have  passed  through  the  body  of  Mary  in 
order  to  His  manifestation  in  the  world  or  the  im- 
partation  of  His  message.  But  He  was  not  actu- 
ally born,  and  He  did  not  actually  suffer  or  die. 
Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch  (110-117  a.d.)  is 
the  writer  to  whom  we  turn  for  evidence  as  to 
the  original  sense  of  the  Creed,  in  its  affirmation, 
*'born  of  the  Virgin  Mary."  Interesting  ques- 
tions must  be  passed  over  here,  as  irrelevant, 
whether  Ignatius  knew  the  Roman  Creed,  or 
whether  that  Creed  originated  in  Asia  Minor 
and  was  carried  thence  to  Rome.  The  tendency 
of  scholars  at  present  is  to  maintain  that  it 
originated  at  Rome,  and  was  carried  from  there 
to  Asia  Minor.  But  so  early  as  the  time  of 
Ignatius,  there  were  formulas  in  use,  which  are 
striking  reminders  of  the  Roman  formulas,  which 
couple  the  birth  and  the  passion  in  organic  con- 
nection. The  following  passage  from  Ignatius 
shows  how  close  was  the  resemblance,  but  also, 
which  is  more  important,  what  was  the  earliest 
interpretation :  — 

*' Jesus  Christ,  who  was  descended  from 
David,  and  was  also  of  Mary ;  who  was  truly 


INTERPRETATION   OF  VIRGIN-BIRTH    107 

born,  and  did  eat  and  drink ;  He  was  truly 
persecuted  under  Pontius  Pilate;  He  was 
truly  crucified  and  (truly)  died,  in  the  sight 
of  beings  in  heaven,  and  on  earth,  and 
under  the  earth ;  He  was  truly  raised  from 
the  dead.     C'Ad.  Trail,"  ix.) 

Ignatius  had  heard  of  the  Virgin-birth ;  he 
was  the  first  writer  to  allude  to  it  after  its  presen- 
tation in  the  Gospels  of  Luke  and  Matthew; 
and  he  lived  not  far  from  the  time  when  those 
Gospels  were  published.  He  liked  the  miracu- 
lous element.  The  story  of  the  Magi  and  of 
the  star  he  retells  in  his  own  impressive  way. 
His  comment  is  characteristic,  with  that  tone 
of  mystic  exaltation  found  so  often  in  his 
writings. 

''Now  the  virginity  of  Mary  was  hidden 
from  the  prince  of  this  world,  as  was  also  her 
offspring,  and  the  death  of  the  Lord ;  three 
mysteries  of  renown,  which  were  wrought  in 
silence  by  God."     ("Ad  Eph.,"  xix.) 

But  in  dealing  with  the  rule  of  faith,  it  is  not 
the  Virgin-birth  to  which  he  attaches  importance, 
but  the  actual,  human  birth  of  Christ  as  a  real 
man,  with  flesh  and  blood  and  born  of  a  human 
mother.     These  are  the  references :  — 


io8  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

**  There  is  one  physician  who  is  possessed 
both  of  flesh  and  spirit;  both  made  and 
not  made;  God  existing  in  flesh;  true  Hfe 
in  death;  bothof  Mary  andof  God."  C'Ad 
Ephes.,"  vii.) 

''Jesus  Christ  was,  according  to  the 
appointment  of  God,  conceived  in  the  womb 
by  Mary,  of  the  seed  of  David,  but  by  the 
Holy  Ghost."     C'Ad  Ephes.,"  xviii.) 

*'I  desire  to  guard  you  beforehand  .  .  . 
that  ye  attain  to  full  assurance  in  regard  to 
the  birth  and  passion  and  resurrection,  which 
took  place  in  the  time  of  the  government  of 
Pontius  Pilate,  being  truly  and  certainly  ac- 
complished by  Jesus  Christ  who  is  our  hope. 
C'Ad  Mag,"  xi.) 

''He  was  truly  of  the  seed  of  David  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh,  and  the  Son  of  God 
according  to  the  will  and  power  of  God; 
that  He  was  truly  born  of  a  virgin,  was  bap- 
tized by  John  .  .  .  and  was  truly,  under 
Pontius  Pilate  and  Herod  the  Tetrarch, 
nailed  (to  the  cross)  for  us  in  His  flesh. 

"Now,  He  suffered  all  these  things  for  our 
sakes,that  we  might  be  saved.  And  He  suf- 
fered truly,  even  as  also  He  truly  raised  up 
Himself,  not  as  certain  unbelievers  maintain, 
that  He  only  seemed  to  suffer  ...  for  I 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRG  RTH     109 

know  that  after  His  resurrectk  ,  He  was 

still  possessed  of  flesh,  and  I ".         'e  that  He 
is  now."     (^'Ad  Smyr.,"  ii,  ' 

Out  of  such  phrases  and  e^  ^  sions  and  out 
of  the  mood  which  begot  t'.  •  .  arose  the  old 
Roman  Creed,  more  terse  jondensed  and 

perhaps    more    emphatic    r  omission   of 

adjectives  intended  to  inct^'(C.\?<  the  meaning. 
That  the  purpose  of  IghaiK'^s  was  to  make 
emphatic  the  actual  hurp%tx  "^r^^th,  and  not  the 
birth  from  a  virgin,  is  f^^^  n  by  a  spurious 
epistle,  attributed  to  hi  v.  /-  ich  not  only  imi- 
tates his  style,  but  h  ^ht  his  spirit,  and 
may  have  been  writter  middle  of  the  third 
century  or  earlier.  ]i:  ^4.^  -/led  an  Epistle  to  the 
Tarsians,  and  is  con'J&«i^'^,  later  forms  of  heresy, 
such  as  the  denial  AY^^^me  of  the  humanity  of 
Christ  (Patripas^  ; '1^  ftad  Sabellians),  and  by 
others  of  His  di  .^^^-^^1  asserting  that  He  is  mere 
man.  Against  ^l,5nch  he  urges  the  true  doc- 
trine of  St.  Pa    I . 

*' Mindful  of  nim,  do  ye  by  all  means 
know  the: :  ;  the  Lord,  was  truly  born  of 
Mary,  b'r  "  ide  of  a  woman,  and  was  as 
truly  c  ...     And  he  really  suffered 

and  dJeoL  ot-x^  n       again.'' 


no  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

The  testimony  of  Origen  (f  254)  may  also  be 
added.  He  had  learned  of  the  Roman  Creed, 
possibly  during  his  visit  in  Italy,  and  had  gath- 
ered its  primary  import  to  be  the  assertion  of 
Christ's  actual  human  birth,  and  His  actual 
death :  — 

''He  assumed  a  body  like  to  our  own, 
differing  in  this  respect  only,  that  it  was  born 
of  a  Virgin  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  that  this 
Jesus  Christ  was  truly  born,  and  did  truly 
suffer,  and  did  not  endure  this  death  com- 
mon (to  man)  in  appearance  only,  but  did 
truly  die,"  etc/ 

These  passages  show  that  the  original  purport 
of  the  clause  —  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  —  was 
not  primarily  to  assert  the  Virgin-birth  but  the 
actual  human  birth ;  and  that  the  name  Virgin 
Mary  is  given  for  some  other  reason,  either 
because  it  identified  Christ  with  the  house  of 
David,  from  which  Mary  was  supposed  to  be 
descended,  and  thus  asserted  His  Messiahship; 
or,  as  in  the  case  of  Pontius  Pilate  for  the  pur- 
pose of  identification  and  exactness,  the  name 
Virgin  Mary  having  come  to  be  the  famihar 
designation   of  our    Lord's   mother.     Although 

^  "De  Principiis,"  i,  c.  3. 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    iii 

Ignatius  had  heard  of  the  Virgin-birth,  and 
twice  refers  to  it,  he  did  not  attach  to  the  vir- 
ginity of  Mary  any  special  importance,  such  as 
came  to  be  attached  to  it  in  the  fourth  century, 
when  the  monastic  spirit  invading  the  Church 
was  assigning  to  virginity  a  value  beyond  every 
other  virtue,  and  some  even  were  inclined  to 
make  it  a  condition  of  salvation.  Thus  there 
is  a  suggestive  expression  at  the  close  of  the 
epistle  of  Ignatius  to  the  Smyrnaeans  which 
reads:  "I  salute  the  famihes  of  my  brethren, 
with  their  wives  and  children,  and  the  virgins  who 
are  called  widows^'  (/cat  ra?  irapdivov^  tols  \eyoix4va<; 
XV P^"^)'  It  has  been  thought  that  such  unusual 
language  could  be  explained  only  on  the 
ground  that  the  virgins  whom  Ignatius  speaks 
of  as  '^called  widows"  were  deaconesses, 
who  in  ecclesiastical  order  might  have  been 
grouped  under  the  class  of  widows.  Bishop 
Lightfoot  after  showing  that  this  explanation 
is  untenable  gives  his  own  explanation  as 
follows :  — 

*'This  then  I  suppose  to  be  the  meaning 
of  the  words:  I  salute  those  women,  who 
though  by  name  and  in  outward  condition 
they  are  widows,  I  prefer  to  call  virgins, 
for  such  they  are  in  God's  sight  by  their 


112  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

purity  and  devotion."    (''Apostolic  Fathers," 
iv,  324.)  ' 

That  the  original  purport  of  the  clause  ''born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary"  was  to  assert  the  reality  of 
Christ's  birth,  and  not  its  unique  or  miraculous 
character,  is  further  made  evident  by  other  fea- 
tures of  the  Creed.  Originally  an  expansion 
of  the  baptismal  formula,  it  had  at  first  in  view 
in  its  enlargements  a  thoroughgoing  protest 
against  Gnostic  heresies.  It  proclaimed  God, 
the  almighty  ruler  of  the  universe,  in  opposition 
to  the  many  rulers  whom  the  Gnostics  presented, 
who  acted  as  a  check  on  the  Divine  omnipo- 
tence. When  this  first  article  of  the  Creed  was 
completed  in  accordance  with  its  primary  in- 
tent, we  have  the  fuller  exposition  of  the  Church's 
faith  in  contrast  with  Gnostic  aberrations: 
God,  the  "  Father,''  not  an  indescribable,  ineffa- 
ble abyss  of  being;  "Almighty,''  not  limited  by 
conditions  of  matter  which  He  could  not  control ; 


^  That  a  similar  mode  of  thinking  and  of  speaking  was  charac- 
teristic of  the  early  Church  so  late  as  the  third  century  is  evident 
from  its  more  influential  writers,  such  as  Tertullian,  "De  Exhort. 
Castit.,"  i;  "De  Virg.  Vel.,"  c.  10;  "ad  Uxor.,"  c.  4;  also  C/^m. 
Alex.y  "Strom.,"  viii,  12:  "Such  are  the  Gnostic  souls  which  the 
Gospels  likened  to  the  consecrated  virgins  who  wait  for  their  Lord. 
For  they  are  virgins,  in  respect  of  their  abstaining  from  what  is 
evil." 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH     113 

^^  Maker  of  Heaven,''  in  contrast  with  the  vague 
conceptions  of  Gnosticism  about  an  emanation 
of  the  heavens  (pleroma) ;  "  and  earth,''  whose 
origin  the  Gnostics  with  singular  uniformity 
denied  to  have  been  the  work  of  the  supreme 
God.  The  emphasis  on  His  "  only  Son  our 
Lord  "  contradicts  the  Gnostic  teaching  of  many 
supernatural  beings  in  a  graded  order,  of  whom 
Christ  was  one,  and  the  highest.  Then  comes 
the  affirmation  of  His  perfect  humanity  and  His 
possession  of  a  human  body,  which  stood  promi- 
nent among  Gnostic  negations, — He  was  ''horn" 
of  a  human  mother,  the  Virgin  Mary.  The 
Gnostics  denied  that  He  was  horn;  He  emerged 
from  the  body  of  Mary  in  some  way  different 
from  human  parturition.  They  also  denied 
that  He  suffered — He  seemed  to  suffer;  or  that 
He  actually  died  on  the  cross.  Here  the  em- 
phasis of  the  Creed  is  intensified,  "He  suffered 
under  Pontius  Pilate,  he  was  crucified,  dead,  and 
hurled."  Other  clauses  follow  to  assert  the 
fact  of  the  resurrection,  which  formed  no  part 
of  Gnostic  teaching. 

Gnosticism  originated  for  the  most  part  in 
Asia  Minor,  but  its  chief  teachers  gravitated  to 
Rome,  and  the  Church  in  Rome  felt  more 
heavily  than  was  felt  elsewhere  the  burden  and 
the    responsibility    of   resistance.     Marcion,    a 


114  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

Gnostic  teacher,  who  in  some  respects  was  more 
true  to  the  Pauhne  doctrine,  gave  the  Roman 
Church  much  trouble.  Against  his  special  teach- 
ing may  have  been  levelled  the  clause  which 
asserts  the  coming  again  of  Christ  to  judgment: 
He  shall  come  again  to  judge  both  the  quick  and 
dead.''  For  judgment  and  condemnation  were 
alien  to  Marcion's  conception  of  the  Divine 
goodness  and  love/ 

Other  parts  of  the  Church  met  this  dangerous 
invasion  of  Oriental  religion  in  various  ways. 
Irenaeus,  in  Gaul,  wrote  his  treatise  against 
heresies;  Tertullian,  in  North  Africa,  produced 
controversial  books  against  Marcion  and  the 
Valentinians ;  while  Clement  of  Alexandria  and 
Origen  sought  by  an  appeal  to  the  higher  reason 
and  by  a  more  spiritual  interpretation  of  the 
Christian  faith  to  accomplish  the  same  end. 
But  Rome  produced  a  creed  whose  formulas 
had  long  been  in  use,  gathering  them  up  into  a 
composite  whole.  It  was  not  done  at  once. 
The  Roman  Creed  was  a  growth,  and  a  slow 
one.  Clauses  continued  to  be  inserted,  and  by 
the  fourth  century  it  was  certainly  fuller  than  it 
had  been  when  we  discern  it  in  the  middle  of 

^  Cf.  Dr.  McGifFert's  dissertation  on  "The  Apostles' Creed  " 
(N.Y.,  1902,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons),  for  an  admirable  state- 
ment of  this  view  of  the  Creed  as  a  protest  against  Gnosticism. 


INTERPRETATION    OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    115 

the  second  century.  Not  until  the  eighth  cen- 
tury had  it  taken  on  its  final  form  as  it  is  recited 
to-day. 

It  does  not  cover  the  whole  purport  of  this 
Creed  to  speak  of  it  as  a  protest  against  Oriental 
religion.  It  does,  indeed,  include  this  purpose, 
nor  can  the  Creed  be  understood  without  keep- 
ing this  purpose  in  view.  But  when  the  stress 
of  the  conflict  with  Gnosticism  was  over,  other 
objects  of  a  rule  of  faith  for  catechumens  came 
in  view.  On  this  point  there  are  still  differences 
of  opinion,  whether  it  was  a  baptismal  creed 
recited  as  part  of  the  baptismal  vow,  or  a  creed 
imparted  to  catechumens  as  part  of  their  train- 
ing, or  whether  it  was  a  compendium  of  the 
points  in  Christian  behef  on  which  the  Church 
laid  emphasis.^ 

Among  the  additions  to  the  Creed,  not  in  its 
earlier  form,  is  the  clause,  "conceived  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.''  When  this  addition  was  made,  by  the 
end  of  the  second  or  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century,^  the  clause  which  follows  was  detached 
from  the  clauses  which  speak  of  the  passion 
and  death.     Thus   the    Creed   ultimately   read. 


^  Cf.  Kattenbusch,  "Das  ApostoHsche  Symbol.,"  i,  59  fF. 

^  Cf.  McGiffert,  pp.  91-92,  for  the  evidence,  which  seems  con- 
clusive. The  same  view  is  taken  by  Harnack,  but  is  critised  by 
Kattenbusch,  Bd.  ii,  619. 


ii6  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

^^  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost ^  born  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary;  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,^'  etc., 
becoming  a  separate  article.  At  this  point  we 
touch  the  most  difficult  question  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Creed.  The  various  readings  indi- 
cate that  some  difficulty  was  felt  from  an  early 
period.  In  the  old  Roman  Creed  it  ran  at 
first,  ''who  was  born  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
Mary  the  Virgin'^  (qui  natus  est  de  Spiritu 
Sancto  et  Maria  Firgine).  In  the  Creed  as 
known  to  St.  Augustine,  it  was,  who  was  born 
through  the  Holy  Spirit  from  Mary  the  Virgin" 
(qui  natus  est  per  Spiritum  Sanctum  ex  Virgine 
Maria).  Still  another  reading  in  an  ancient 
creed  of  the  fourth  century,  qui  natus  est  de 
Spiritu  Sancto  et  ex  Maria  Virgine,'^  In  the 
fourth  century  conceptus  was  substituted  for 
natus  (359,  council  of  Ariminum),  and  this 
change  was  adopted  in  the  revision  of  the  old 
Roman  Creed  in  Gaul,  and  thence  has  come 
down  to  us  in  our  so-called  Apostles'  Creed. 
Changes  of  meaning,  which  may  seem  slight, 
were  involved  in  this  use  of  prepositions,  de  or 
per  or  ex,  or  the  simple  conjunction  et.  They 
seem  slight,  but  they  involved  no  less  an  issue 
than  the  nature  of  the  Incarnation;  and  the 
exact  question  at  issue  was,  ''What  part  in  the 
transaction  did  Mary  have  ?     Was  she  an  equal 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH     117 

partner  with  the  Holy  Spirit  {et)^  or  was  her 
function  a  subordinate  one,  as  the  body  is 
subordinate  to  the  soul,  the  necessary,  earthly 
agency  for  the  human  birth?  —  the  work  of 
the  Incarnation  being  solely  of  God. 

St.  Augustine  felt  the  difficulty.  In  his 
''Enchiridion"  he  remarks:  — 

**The  puzzle  is,  in  what  sense  it  is  said, 
*born  of  the  Holy  Ghost'  when  He  [Christ] 
is  in  no  sense  the  Son  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
.  .  .  When  we  make  confession  that  Christ 
was  born  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  it  is  difficult  to  explain  how  it 
is  that  He  is  not  the  Son  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  is  the  Son  of  the  Virgin  Mary  when  He 
was  born  both  of  Him  and  of  her.  It  is 
clear  beyond  a  doubt  that  He  was  not  born 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  His  Father,  in  the 
same  sense  that  he  was  born  of  the  Virgin 
as  His  mother."     C'Enchir.,"  38.  ) 

Augustine's  answer  is  admirable,  and  covers 
more  than  one  point  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation.  The  substance  of  his  solution  of 
the  problem  is  that  the  Incarnation  is  a  manifes- 
tation of  the  grace  of  God,  by  which  grace  Christ 
was  purified  from  the  womb  by  the  Holy  Spirit 


ii8  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  no  entrance  for  sin. 
The  passage  containing  his  answer  is  given  in 
full,  and  will  be  referred  to  again. 

"As  not  every  one  who  is  called  a  son,  was 
born  of  him  whose  son  he  is  called,  it  is  clear 
that  this  arrangement  by  which  Christ  was 
born  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  not  as  His  Son, 
and  of  the  Virgin  Mary  as  her  son,  is  in- 
tended as  a  manifestation  of  the  grace  of 
God.  For  it  was  by  this  grace  that  a  man, 
without  any  antecedent  merit,  was  at  the 
very  commencement  of  his  existence  as  man, 
so  united  in  one  person  with  the  Word  of 
God,  that  the  very  person  who  was  Son  of 
man  was  at  the  very  same  time  the  Son 
of  God,  and  the  very  person  who  was  Son 
of  God  was  at  the  same  time  Son  of  Man ; 
and  in  the  adoption  of  his  human  nature 
into  the  divine,  the  grace  itself  became  in 
a  way  so  natural  to  the  man,  as  to  leave  no 
room  for  the  entrance  of  sin.  Wherefore 
this  grace  is  signified  by  the  Holy  Spirit; 
for  He,  though  in  his  own  nature  God,  may 
also  be  called  the  gift  of  God.  And  to  ex- 
plain all  this  sufficiently,  if  indeed  it  could 
be  done  at  all,  would  require  a  very  length- 
ened discussion."     C'  Enchir.,"  40.) 


INTERPRETATION    OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    119 

From  this  discussion  the  conclusion  is  drawn 
that  in  reciting  the  Creed,  the  original  sense  may 
still  be  retained,  as  quite  in  harmony  with  the 
original  design  of  the  Creed,  with  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, and  with  sound  learning.  The  clause 
^^ born  of  the  Virgin  Mary''  would  then  be  con- 
nected with  the  clauses  that  follow  —  ''suffered 
under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead,  and 
buried.''  Taken  thus  together  they  assert  the 
reality  of  the  human  birth  of  Christ,  as  if  it 
read  *'born  of  a  woman,  the  Virgin  Mary,"  and 
the  reality  also  of  His  death  and  passion.  *' Con- 
ceived by  the  Holy  Ghost"  then  stands  as  a 
distinct  clause,  as  it  also  had  a  distinct  and 
separate  origin,^  nor  can  any  better  interpreta- 
tion of  this  clause  be  found  than  that  given 
above  from  St.  Augustine. 

But  there  are  difficulties  connected  with  the 
clause,  ''conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  however 
we  may  interpret.  It  is  the  reminder  of  a  cer- 
tain type  of  theology  which  was  never  developed 
in  the  ancient  church,  and  never  quite  recon- 
ciled with  the  prevailing  theology  of  the  Eastern 
Church.  If  it  is  taken  literally,  and  coupled 
with  ''born  of   the  Virgin  Mary"  as  forming 

^  The  words  conceptus  est  were  not  added  until  after  the  middle 
of  the  fourth  century,  finding  their  way  into  the  creed  of  Southern 
Gaul,  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.     Cf.  McGiflPert,  p.  189. 


120  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

one  article,  it  seems  to  indicate,  as  Augustine 
remarked,  that  Jesus  had  for  His  parents  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  Mary.  Nor  was  it  an  unreal 
or  fanciful  possibility,  against  which  Augustine 
was  contending.  There  was  danger  at  this 
point. 

Augustine  held  that  the  Incarnation  was  ac- 
complished by  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
acting  in  and  from  the  conception  of  Jesus,  but 
acting  also  on  the  personality  of  Jesus  through- 
out His  life.  He  laid  the  stress  upon  the  Divine 
activity,  not  upon  the  human  contribution  of 
Mary.  So  also  Athanasius,  who  ranks  with 
Augustine  as  the  other  of  the  two  greatest  Church 
fathers,  asserts  the  Incarnation  as  the  work  of 
Deity  alone.  He  differs,  however,  from  Augus- 
tine, in  that  he  does  not  attribute  the  Divine 
agency  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  to  the  Eternal  Son 
Himself,  the  second  distinction  in  the  Godhead, 
who  from  His  preexistent  state  came  down  and 
was  made  man.  This  thought  of  the  preex- 
istence  of  Christ,  to  which  no  allusion  is  made 
in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  was  uppermost  in  the 
consciousness  of  religious  and  theological  teach- 
ers in  the  East,  and  is  the  badge  of  Eastern 
creeds  as  compared  with  Western.  And  so 
Athanasius  speaks,  as  representing  another  way 
of  looking  at  the  Incarnation,  when  he  says :  — 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    121 

"For  this  purpose,  then,  the  incorporeal 
and  incorruptible  and  immaterial  Word  of 
God  comes  to  our  realm,  howbeit  He  was  not 
far  from  us  before.  For  no  part  of  creation 
is  left  void  of  Him :  He  has  filled  all  things 
everywhere,  remaining  present  with  His 
own  Father.  But  He  comes  in  condescen- 
sion to  show  loving  kindness  upon  us  and 
to  visit  us.  .  .  .  He  takes  unto  Himself  a 
body  and  that  of  no  different  sort  from 
ours.  .  .  .  Being  Himself  mighty,  and  Ar- 
tificer of  everything,  He  prepares  the  body 
in  the  Virgin,  as  a  temple  unto  Himself,  and 
makes  it  His  very  own."     C'De  Incar.,"  8.) 

''When  He  was  descending  to  us.  He 
fashioned  His  body  for  Himself  from  a 
Virgin,  thus  to  afford  to  all  no  small  proof 
of  His  Godhead,  in  that  He  who  formed  this 
is  also  Maker  of  everything  else  as  well." 
C'De  Incar.,"  17.     Robertson's  ed.) 

But  not  to  dwell  on  this  divergence,  which 
would  require  too  much  space  for  its  develop- 
ment, and  is  irrelevant  here,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  both  Athanasius  and  Augustine,  as  men 
filled  with  the  God  consciousness,  attribute  the 
Incarnation  to  God  alone;  and  the  human 
agent,  the  Mother  of  Christ,  stands  in  the  back- 


122  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

ground  of  their  thought.  But  they  Hved  at  a 
time  when  changes  were  impending,  were  indeed 
already  in  process,  and  were  revolutionizing  the 
old  Catholic  Church,  of  the  first  three  centuries, 
into  the  Church  of  the  later  Byzantine  type,  or 
in  the  West,  of  the  Middle  Ages.  And  the  issue 
turned  on  the  Virgin-birth.  These  two  Church 
fathers  stood  on  the  dividing  Hne;  Athanasius 
died  in  373  and  Augustine  in  430.  Both  felt 
some  effect  of  the  coming  change.  Athanasius 
uses  language  in  speaking  of  Mary  which  an- 
ticipates the  later  usage,  but  the  use  was  rare 
and  exceptional,  and  may  be  taken  as  incidental. 
And  Augustine,  that  stern  man  and  most  rigid 
of  theologians,  makes  Mary  an  exception  to  the 
working  of  the  all-prevailing  law  and  curse  of 
original  sin.  His  opponent  Pelagius  would  have 
exempted  many  others.  In  making  the  sole 
exception  of  Mary,  Augustine  seems  to  be 
governed  rather  by  motives  of  courtesy  and 
dehcacy  than  of  strict  theology.  His  language 
has  always  been  noted  as  somewhat  pecuUar. 
But  even  so,  he  more  than  once  asserts  that 
Mary  was  born  in  original  sin.  She  was  con- 
ceived in  iniquity,  for  she  sinned  in  Adam.  But 
in  the  matter  of  actual  transgression  Augustine 
makes  a  concession  in  her  favor.  **Of  the  Holy 
Virgin  Mary,  of   whom  out   of   honor    to    the 


INTERPRETATION   OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    123 

Lord,  I  wish  no  question  to  be  made  where  sins 
are  treated  of,  —  for  how  do  we  know  what  mode 
of  grace  wholly  to  conquer  sin  may  have  been 
bestowed  upon  her  who  was  found  meet  to  con- 
ceive and  bear  Him  of  whom  it  is  certain  that 
He  had  no  sin  ? " 

The  writers  in  the  first  three  centuries  who 
have  most  to  say  about  the  Virgin-birth  belong 
to  the  Western,  or  Latin  Church.  Justin  Martyr 
defends  it  against  Trypho  the  Jew;  with  Justin 
also  originated  the  famous  comparison  of  Eve 
and  Mary.  He  lived  at  Rome,  and  had  come 
there  from  Asia  Minor,  and  may  have  brought 
with  him  from  thence  a  tendency  to  the  exalta- 
tion of  Mary.  Justin  was  followed  by  Irenaeus, 
who  had  also  felt  the  influence  of  Asia  Minor 
and  who  expanded  the  famous  illustration  — 
how  Eve  had  brought  sin  and  Mary  redemption 
to  the  world.  The  comparison  was  an  unfortu- 
nate one,  but  it  struck  the  popular  imagination, 
and  it  was  given  greater  vogue  by  Tertullian. 
That  some  difficulty  was  experienced  in  present- 
ing evidence  for  the  Virgin-birth  is  seen  in  the 
great  weight  attached  to  the  prophecy  in  Isaiah 
vii.  14.  The  Jews,  who  were  familiar  with 
Hebrew  and  with  their  own  history,  refused  to 
accept  it.  Justin  and  Irenaeus  and  Tertullian 
and  others  rested  upon  it,  despite  the  objections. 


124  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

Origen  recognized  the  difficulty;  he  had  in- 
corporated in  the  parallel  columns  of  his  *'Hex- 
apla"  three  Greek  versions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, which  were  intended  as  improvements 
on  the  Septuagint  translation.  These  versions 
by  Aquila,  Symmachus,  and  Theodotion,  sub- 
stituted peapL<;  for  7rap0€po<;,  making  the  fa- 
mous passage  read  ''a  young  woman"  instead 
of  a  'Virgin."  But  when  Origen  was  engaged 
in  meeting  the  objections  of  Celsus,  and  among 
them  the  objection  to  the  Virgin-birth,  he  re- 
marks on  this  passage:  ''Now  if  a  Jew  should 
split  words  and  say  that  the  words  are  not,  '  Lo, 
a  virgin,'  but  'Lo,  a  young  woman,'  we  reply 
that  the  word  'Olmah'  — which  the  Septuagint 
have  rendered  by  'a  virgin,'  and  others  by  'a 
young  woman '  —  occurs,  as  they  say,  in  Deu- 
teronomy as  appHed  to  a  virgin  "  ^  (Deut. 
xxii,  23,  24).  Other  arguments  were  sought 
from  the  sphere  of  animal  hfe,  where  cases  of 
parthenogenesis  were  cited,^  to  show  creative 
skill  and  power.     Nor  was  it  thought  an  un- 

^  "Contra  Celsum,"  i,  36. 

^  The  fable  of  the  Phoenix  was  often  used  as  an  illustration.  Cf. 
Rufinus,  "Expos.  Sym.  Apost.,"  c.  ii,  who  also  mentions  the  case 
of  bees.  Cf.  also  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  who  enlarges  on  the  subject 
in  his  "Catechetical  Lectures,"  xii,  22  fF. ;  but  by  his  time  the 
tendency  to  make  the  Virgin-birth  an  essential  condition  for  the 
Incarnation  was  the  most  potent  argument  (ob.  386). 


INTERPRETATION    OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH     125 

worthy  argument  to  remind  the  pagans  how  in 
their  mythology,  as  well  as  in  the  case  of  some 
of  their  famous  men,  reputed  instances  of  super- 
natural birth  were  not  uncommon.  On  the 
whole  it  may  be  said  that  no  additional  evidence 
was  alleged  in  confirmation  of  the  narratives  of 
Matthew  and  of  Luke.  There  was  another  line 
of  argument,  but  that  remained  yet  to  be  worked 
out  to  its  rigid  conclusion,  —  that  the  Virgin- 
birth  was  essential  to  the  Incarnation.  There  are 
hints  of  it,  but  it  was  not  yet  made  prominent, 
as  it  was  afterward  to  become.  It  is  implied 
in  the  contrast  between  Eve  and  Mary.  Ter- 
tullian,  from  whom  so  many  germs  of  Latin 
theology  proceed,  was  the  first  to  rationalize  on 
this  point  and  to  connect  the  Incarnation  in  dog- 
matic fashion  with  the  Virgin-birth  C'De  Carne 
Christi,"  c.  18). 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Church  of  the  East, 
with  the  exception  of  Asia  Minor,  no  disposition 
was  seen  to  urge  the  Virgin-birth  as  an  essential 
content  of  the  Christian  faith.  Clement  of 
Alexandria  makes  no  use  of  it,  even  in  speaking 
of  the  birth  of  Christ,  where  the  customary  allu- 
sion would  be  in  order.  Origen  builds  up  his 
argument  for  the  Incarnation  in  his  important 
treatise  ''On  First  Principles,"  without  depend- 
ence on  it.    The  Eastern  Church  attached  more 


126  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

importance  to  the  baptism  of  Christ  than  to  His 
birth,  to  the  moment  when  He  began  to  teach 
and  to  preach  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  best 
Eastern  theologians  were  more  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  writer  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  where 
no  reference  is  made  to  the  Virgin-birth,  but 
where  the  Incarnation  is  the  central  theme  and 
the  teaching  of  Christ  is  more  amply  illustrated 
than  in  the  synoptics.  In  general,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  prologue  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
St.  John  was  preferred  in  the  East;  while  in 
the  Roman  Church  the  preference  was  given  to 
the  prologues  of  Matthew  and  Luke.  It  is  a 
striking  circumstance  that  in  the  Creed  of  the 
Church  in  Jerusalem,  down  to  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  century,  no  reference  to  the  Virgin- 
birth  is  included.  It  was  also  absent  from  the 
Creed  of  the  Church  in  Caesarea.  But  what  is 
more  striking  still,  is  its  absence  from  the  Creed 
of  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  which  met  for  the  pur- 
pose of  determining  the  doctrine  of  the  Incar- 
nation. It  is  not  a  question  here,  whether  the 
fathers  assembled  at  Nicaea  accepted  the  Virgin- 
birth;  for  any  reason  we  know  to  the  contrary 
they  did  accept  it,  but  they  did  not  include  it  in 
their  Creed,  from  which  the  inference  is  they  did 
not  rest  the  doctrines  of  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Trinity  upon  it.     So  late  as  431   a.d.,  at  the 


INTERPRETATION    OF   VIRGIN-BIRTH    127 

Third  General  Council,  ''the  Synod  gave  order 
under  pain  of  excommunication  and  deposition, 
that  no  other  than  the  Nicene  Creed  .  .  .  should 
be  used."  ^  The  Nicene  Creed,  set  forth  at 
Nicaea  in  325  a.d.,  ran  as  follows:  — 

"We  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father  Al- 
mighty, maker  of  all  things  both  visible  and 
invisible. 

*'And  in  one  Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  begotten 
of  the  Father,  only  begotten,  that  is,  of  the 
substance  of  the  Father,  God  out  of  God, 
Light  out  of  Light,  very  God  out  of  very 
God,  begotten,  not  made,  of  the  same  sub- 
stance with  the  Father;  by  whom  all  things 
were  made,  both  those  in  heaven  and  on  the 
earth ;  who  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation 
came  down  and  was  incarnate  and  was  made 
man,  and  suffered  and  rose  again  the  third 
day,  and  ascended  into  the  heavens  and  will 
come  to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead. 

''And  in  the  Holy  Spirit.'' ' 


^  Hefele,  "History  of  the  Councils,"  Eng.  Tr.,  ii,  71. 
^  The  anathemas  appended  to  the  Creed  are  omitted  as  having 
no  bearing  in  this  connection. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE      VIRGIN-BIRTH      AND      THE      INCARNATION 
AFTER   THE    FOURTH    CENTURY 

The  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  in  the  Church  of 
the  first  centuries  and  later  contributed  no  im- 
portant motive  to  the  conversion  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  So  far  as  we  know,  it  was  generally 
received  that  Christ  was  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary;  but  no  connection  had  yet  been  estab- 
lished between  the  circumstance  of  His  birth 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.  There  were 
some  who  denied  His  supernatural  conception 
and  birth.  Thus  Justin  Martyr  tells  us  there 
were  those  ''who  admit  that  He  is  Christ,  while 
holding  Him  to  be  man  of  men ;  with  whom  I 
do  not  agree,  nor  would  I,  even  though  most  of 
those  who  have  the  same  opinions  as  myself 
should  say  so"  (''Dial,  cum  Tryph.,"  48). 
Cerinthus,  the  heretic,  denied  it,  as  did  also  the 
Ebionites.  But  the  Gnostics  for  the  most  part 
accepted  the  Virgin-birth,  they  could  make  use 
of  it  in  various  ways  to  further  their  imaginative 
schemes;    substituting  ''in"  or  "through"  for 

128 


THE    INCARNATION  129 

''of  "  a  virgin.  The  Arians  also  believed  in  the 
Virgin-birth,  for  it  quite  suited  their  denial  of 
Christ's  complete  humanity.  The  Virgin-birth 
therefore  was  no  badge  of  orthodoxy  or  test  of 
Catholicity. 

But  the  main  point  is  that  it  formed  no  vital 
part  of  the  Church's  message,  as  it  had  in  the 
beginning  no  place  in  the  apostolic  preaching. 
The  first  sermons  of  Peter  (Acts  i.  15;  ii.  14) 
omitted  its  mention,  as  also  St.  John  and  St. 
Paul  w^ere  silent  regarding  it.  The  work  of  the 
apostles  and  of  their  successors  was  to  present 
the  mature  Christ,  the  strong  Christ,  the  man 
who  had  grown  to  perfection  tested  by  tempta- 
tion (Heb.  V.  8),  the  captain  of  our  salvation  who 
learned  obedience  by  the  things  He  suffered.  It 
was  not  the  infant  in  His  mother's  arms  who 
made  the  effective  appeal  to  the  old  Roman 
world.  The  ancient  Catholic  Church  was  think- 
ing of  other  things,  preoccupied  with  the  reality 
of  God's  existence  and  His  control  of  the  world, 
and  with  the  mission  of  Christ  to  reveal  the 
nature  of  God,  and  to  establish  His  Kingdom  in 
the  world.  Apologetic  writers  do  not  occupy 
themselves  with  defending  the  Virgin-birth; 
some  allude  to  it,  others  do  not,  but  all  alike  are 
supremely  absorbed  with  the  issues  of  the  moral 
life  which  Christ  embodied.     In  making  Christ 


130  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

known  to  the  men  of  their  age,  as  a  man  among 
men,  while  yet  the  incarnation  of  God,  they 
accomphshed  that  mightiest  of  tasks,  —  the  con- 
version of  the  Roman  Empire. 

In  the  course  of  the  fourth  century  a  change 
set  in  —  a  change  so  great  as  to  amount  to  a 
revolution  when  its  results  became  finally  ap- 
parent. There  are  many  elements  in  the  pro- 
cess which  wrought  this  revolution  which  can- 
not be  even  alluded  to  here;  only  the  barest 
outlines  can  be  mentioned.  To  put  the  situa- 
tion in  the  largest,  most  general,  way,  the  causes 
leading  to  the  deterioration  in  Church  life  as 
well  as  in  thought  and  in  worship  were  the 
necessary  evils  involved  in  so  great  a  victory 
as  the  Church  had  achieved,  when,  out  of  dire 
persecution,  it  emerged  victorious  and  became 
the  established  religion  of  the  empire  under 
Constantine.  A  reaction  immediately  began 
against  the  worldliness  wherein  the  Church 
was  now  involved,  and  more  particularly 
a  reaction  from  the  vices  which  stained  and 
defaced  the  pagan  character.  This  led  to  the 
growing  and  ever  more  widely  prevailing  con- 
viction that  celibacy  (virginity)  was  the  one 
highest  virtue,  constituting  the  angelic  life,  the 
imitation  of  God.  The  effect  of  the  great 
Council  of  Nicaea,  which    had  proclaimed  the 


THE    INCARNATION 


131 


co-equality  of  Christ  with  the  Father,  induced  a 
tendency  to  dwell  more  exclusively  on  the 
divinity  of  Christ  than  on  His  humanity.  An 
able  and  distinguished  bishop,  Apolhnaris  of 
Laodicea,  denied  the  complete  humanity  of 
Christ,  holding  that  He  possessed  only  a  human 
body  {(Tcofxa  with  \pvxr)  aXoyo?)  and  that  the 
Divine  mind  had  taken  the  place  of  the  human 
mind  or  reason  (6  pov<s).  He  was  condemned  as 
a  heretic  (a.d.  381),  but,  as  the  subsequent 
history  showed.  He  was  not  forgotten,  His  argu- 
ment carried  weight,  in  reality  He  had  only 
given  expression  to  the  tendency  of  His  own 
and  the  following  generations.  His  exact 
statement  was  avoided,  but  approximation  was 
made  to  His  teaching  as  far  as  words  would 
allow. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Virgin  Mary 
came  to  the  forefront  in  the  popular  mind  and 
in  the  writings  of  professed  theologians.  She 
now  became  known  in  common  parlance  as 
the  Mother  of  God  (OeoroKo^)  and  as  *'ever 
Virgin."  ^     It  became  a  matter  of  faith  to  main- 

^  For  the  definition  of  the  phrase  "ever  Virgin"  (detTrap^eVos : 
semper  vtrgo),  which  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches  invariably 
add  as  a  gloss  to  the  clause  in  the  Creed,  "born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,"  cf.  Augustine,  "Ep.  (137)  ad  Volus.,"  c.  8 :  "The  body  of 
the  infant  Jesus  was  brought  forth  from  the  womb  of  His  mother, 
still  a  virgin,  by  the  same  power  which  afterwards  introduced  His 


132  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

tain  that  she  had  no  other  children,  reversing 
the  opinion  of  the  eadier  Church,  thenceforth 
designated  as  the  Helvidian  heresy.  The  Vir- 
gin-birth passed  from  an  incident  into  a  sacro- 
sanct doctrine,  to  be  held  as  essentially  related 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Trinity,  and  without  which  they  could  not  be 
maintained. 

But  all  this  could  not  have  been  apart 
from  the  strange  concurrence  with  that  feature 
of  old  heathen  religion,  which  shows  peoples 
as  yearning  after  female  deities.  The  worship 
of  Isis,  which  had  achieved  wide  popularity  in 
the  empire,  was  now  transferred  to  Mary,  and 
the  transition  of  the  heathens  into  the  Church 
became  easy  and  natural.  Other  female  deities 
there  were,  popular  in  the  East,  —  Demeter, 
Ceres,  or  great  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,  — 
and  from  these  the  worship  now  fell  away 
to  a  better,  more  attractive  substitute.  Mary 
was  now  supplanting  her  Son;  the  Father 
and  the  Son  retreat  into  the  background  of 
the    people's    consciousness;     Mary    reigns    as 


body,  when  He  was  a  man,  through  the  closed  doors  into  the  upper 
chamber."  How  rigidly  Augustine  connected  this  notion  of  the 
virginity  in  partu  with  the  clause  in  the  Creed,  "born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,"  is  evident  from  "Enchir.,"  c.  34,  and  also  is  it  evident 
how  v/ide  his  departure  from  the  original  sense  of  the  Creed. 


THE    INCARNATION  133 

the  Queen  of  heaven;  the  great  truth  of 
the  fatherhood  of  God,  which  Christ  pro- 
claimed as  the  mission  of  His  Kfe,  became 
inoperative. 

Asia  Minor  seems  to  have  been  the  place  where 
the  transition  was  accomplished.  It  was  a 
famous  workshop  of  religions,  from  whence  the 
influence  spread  into  other  countries.  Here,  as 
is  probable,  the  materials  were  worked  over,  of 
which  other  lands  contributed  the  germs.  From 
the  Western  Church  was  imported  into  the  East 
the  festival  of  the  birth  of  Christ  (360-386  a.d.) 
on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December.  How  early 
it  was  observed  in  the  West  is  not  known,  the 
first  allusion  to  it  being  as  late  as  336  a.d.^ 
Another  contemporaneous  change  was  the  com- 
bination or  fusion  of  what  was  characteristic 
of  the  Roman  Creed  (Apostles')  with  the  essen- 
tial features  of  the  Creed  of  Nicaea.  Under 
what  circumstances  this  notable  result  was 
accomphshed  is  still  a  question  which  needs 
elucidation,^  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  Creed 

^  Cf.  Duchesne,  "Origines  du  Culte  Chretienne,"  pp.  247  ff. 
Augustine  does  not  mention  Christmas  among  the  festivals  uni- 
versally observed  on  the  authority  of  the  apostles  or  plenary 
councils  —  "the  Lord's  passion,  resurrection  and  ascension,  and 
the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from  heaven,"  Ep.  54  (400  a.d.). 

^  Cf.  Swainson,  "The  Nicene  and  Apostles'  Creeds,"  pp.  85  flp. 
and  155  fF.     See  also  Hort,  "Tv^o  Dissertations"  on  the  creeds. 


134  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

now  designated  and  recited  as  the  Nicene  Creed 
was  probably  the  work  of  Epiphanius,  in  whose 
treatise,  **The  Anchored  One"  (c.  374  a.d.),  it 
first  appears.  Cyril,  the  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
who  was  suspected  of  heresy,  presented  this 
Creed  to  the  so-called  second  General  Council 
in  381  A.D.,  and  on  the  ground  of  this  con- 
fession was  acquitted.  This  new  creed  grew  in 
popular  use,  till  it  supplanted  the  Nicene 
Creed ;  and  it  gained  the  approval  of  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon  (451  a.d.),  under  the  misapprehen- 
sion that  it  was  the  work  of  the  Council  of 
Constantinople.  The  new  Creed,  as  Dr.  Hort 
has  remarked,  had  ''sung  itself"  into  the  heart 
of  the  Church,  before  it  received  conciliar  sanc- 
tion. From  the  East  it  travelled  back  into  the 
West  and  supplanted  for  generations  the  old 
Roman  (Apostles')  Creed. 

These  facts  are  mentioned  here  because  of 
their  relation  to  the  process  going  on  in  Asia 
Minor  during  the  fourth  century,  which  was 
revolutionizing  the  thought  and  belief  of  the 
Church.  Germs,  when  they  are  transplanted, 
may  change  their  character  or  gain  a  new  vitality. 
Enough  remains  in  the  way  of  literary  debris 
to  show  the  process  of  the  transformation. 
Thus,  for  example,  the  pseudo  Ignatius  (c.  340 
A.D.),  revised  the  Ignatian  Epistles,  and  brought 


THE   INCARNATION  135 

it  up  to  date  as  a  text-book.  Wherever  the 
genuine  Ignatius  had  mentioned  Mary,  as  he 
was  wont  to  do  without  the  title  Virgin,  that 
designation  was  inserted,  and  generally,  where- 
ever  she  was  mentioned  in  the  original,  or  the 
birth  of  Christ,  there  was  expansion  on  the  Vir- 
gin-birth, whether  Ignatius  had  mentioned  it  or 
not.  The  error  into  which  Ignatius  had  fallen 
when  he  saluted  **the  virgins  who  are  called 
widows,"  was  corrected  to  read,  **  those  that 
are  ever  virgins  and  the  widows." 

The  air  was  full  of  forgeries.  As  the  interest 
in  Mary  grew,  information  was  needed  about 
her  life  which  the  Gospels  did  not  give,  and, 
indeed,  regarding  her  they  are  most  reticent. 
But  the  information  for  which  the  age  was  crav- 
ing was  forthcoming  in  abundance.  The  story 
was  given  of  her  father  and  mother  (Joachim 
and  Anna),  of  her  own  miraculous  birth,  and 
her  sinless  purity,  and  many  details  of  her 
betrothal;  the  birth  of  Jesus  was  magnified  by 
many  incidents,  and  the  lack  of  knowledge  about 
His  early  years  was  supplemented  with  miracu- 
lous events.  No  check  was  placed  on  the  imagi- 
nation as  it  now  unfolded  to  the  wondering  world 
the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy.  What  impressed  the 
imagination  most  was  the  contrast  to  which 
words  were  unequal,  of  the  infant  Jesus  in  His 


136  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

mother's  arms,  carrying  on  the  superintendence 
and  control  of  the  universe/ 

We  are  now  a  long  way  from  the  original  pur- 
pose of  the  old  Roman  Creed,  in  its  simple 
affirmation  that  Christ  was  horn^  and  of  the 
Virgin  Mary.  The  first  step  in  the  process  of 
departure  followed  in  consequence  of  the  ad- 
dition of  the  clause,  '^conceived  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  miraculous  conception  was  then 
interpreted  as  implying  the  miraculous  birth, 
which  meant  that  He  was  not  actually  born  by 
the  mode  of  human  birth,  but  in  some  super- 
natural way,  with  the  inevitable  inference  to 
follow,  that  His  body  was  not  in  all  respects  like 
a  human  body,  and  that  His  flesh  had  some  super- 
natural and  life-giving  quality.  Another  infer- 
ence next  read  into  the  Creed  carries  us  still 
further  from  the  reality  and  historicity  of  His 
earthly  life.  It  began  to  be  asserted  that  in 
the  Incarnation,  the  Word,  or  Eternal  Son,  did 
not   unite   with   an   individual   man,   but   with 


^  Cf.  article  in  "Diet.  Chris.  Biog."  on  "Gospels  Apocryphal," 
by  Lipsius,  for  a  description  of  these  writings,  influential  in  the 
Church  despite  their  origin.  The  Roman  dogma  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception  of  Mary  is  derived  from  this  source.  For  the  in- 
fluence of  the  "Protevangelium"  of  James  and  kindred  writings 
upon  the  most  eminent  Church  fathers,  cf.  Ambrose,  "De  Virgini- 
tate,"  ii,  2,  who  draws  the  portrait  of  Mary  with  many  details, 
as  to  her  character,  her  mode  of  life,  etc.,  from  these  sources. 


THE   INCARNATION  137 

humanity.  Christ  it  was  said  was  not  ''a  man" 
but  *'man."  This  was  practically  equivalent, 
however  strenuously  it  might  be  denied,  to  the 
Apollinarian  opinion,  that  Christ  was  not  a  com- 
plete or  perfect  man.  For  ''man"  without  in- 
dividuality may  answer  for  a  theological 
abstraction,  but  is  inconceivable  in  the  concrete 
world  of  human  life. 

It  is  too  large  a  question  to  be  discussed  here, 
whether  the  usage  of  the  earlier  Church  in 
any  approved  writer  sanctioned  this  view  of 
the  imperfect  humanity  of  Christ.  It  probably 
arose  as  a  way  of  thinking  in  the  Eastern 
Church  during  or  after  the  fourth  century.  At 
any  rate  we  have  the  testimony  of  Augustine 
(f43o)  to  the  thought  and  mode  of  expression 
in  the  West,  to  which  all  the  more  importance 
attaches,  because  of  his  influence,  and  also 
because  he  was  sensitive  to  his  reputation  for 
orthodoxy.  No  one  would  have  known  sooner 
than  he,  if  any  change  were  impending  in  theo- 
logical circles  on  so  vital  a  point.  But  Augus- 
tine spoke  of  Christ  as  an  individual  man  in 
organic  union  with  the  Godhead.  He  did  so 
in  the  ''Confessions,"  and  more  dogmatically  in 
his  treatise  on  the  Creed.  It  is  sometimes  said 
that  Augustine's  doctrine  of  predestination  in- 
fluenced his  manner  of  speaking  on  this  feature 


138  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

of  the  Incarnation ;  but,  however  that  may  be, 
he  was  not  the  man  to  go  counter  to  what  he 
knew  to  be  the  prevaiHng  mode  of  speech,  or 
even  apprehended  might  become  such.  After 
having  maintained,  then,  that  Christ  is  the  only 
Son  of  God,  and  that  He  is  both  God  and  man, 
Augustine  proceeds :  — 

*'Now  here  the  grace  of  God  is  displayed 
with  the  greatest  power  and  clearness. 
For  what  merit  had  the  human  nature  in 
the  man  Christ  earned,  that  it  should  in  this 
unparalleled  way  be  taken  up  into  the  unity 
of  the  person  of  the  only  Son  of  God  .?  What 
goodness  of  will,  what  goodness  of  desire 
and  intention,  what  good  works  had  gone 
before,  which  made  this  man  worthy  to  be- 
come one  person  with  God  ?  Had  he  been  a 
man  previously  to  this  and  had  He  earned 
this  unprecedented  reward,  that  He  should 
be  thought  worthy  to  become  God  .?  Assur- 
edly nay :  from  the  very  moment  that  He 
began  to  be  man.  He  was  nothing  else  than 
the  Son  of  God,  the  only  Son  of  God,  the 
Word  who  was  made  flesh,  and  therefore 
He  was  God  ;  so  that  just  as  each  individual 
man  unites  in  one  person  a  body  and  a 
rational  soul,  so  Christ  in  one  person  unites 


THE    INCARNATION  139 

the  Word  and  man.  Now  wherefore  was 
this  unheard-of  glory  conferred  on  human 
nature,  a  glory  which,  as  there  was  no  ante- 
cedent merit,  was  of  course  wholly  of  grace  — 
except  that  here  those  who  looked  at  the 
matter  soberly  and  honestly  might  behold  a 
clear  manifestation  of  the  power  of  God's 
grace,  and  might  understand  that  they  are 
justified  from  their  sins  by  the  same  grace, 
which  made  the  man  Christ  Jesus  free  from 
the  possibihty  of  sin  ? "  ^ 

Augustine's  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  which 
had  represented  an  important  tendency  of  the 
Latin  Church,  soon  after  came  to  be  regarded  in 
the  Eastern  Church,  and  especially  from  the 
point  of  view  of  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  as  the  rank- 
est heresy.  No  words,  however  bitter  or  :^curril- 
ous,  were  deemed  too  strong  for  its  condemna- 
tion, when  it  was  reproduced,  in  substance,  by 

^  "Enchir.,"  c.  36,  also  c.  40,  cited  ante,  p.  y^-  ^^-  ^^^^  "Con- 
fess.," vii,  19,  and  "De  Correp,  et  Grat.,"  c,  30.  The  exposition 
of  the  attitude  of  Augustine  cannot  be  attempted  here,  but  it  may 
be  said  that  it  involves  the  question  whether  the  personality  of  an 
individual  man  is  capable  of  growth  and  expansion  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Holy  Spirit  till  it  includes  the  universal  range  of 
human  experience,  and  so  becomes  the  equivalent  of  humanity  in 
itself  and  as  a  whole.  The  point  is  discussed  in  Slattery's  "The 
Master  of  the  World,"  pp.  275  fF.,  and  by  Briggs,  North  Am.  Rev., 
June,  1906. 


140  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

the  Antiochian  school  in  the  East.  But  the  op- 
posite view,  the  doctrine  of  the  incomplete  hu- 
manity, the  denial  of  individuality  to  the  human 
nature  of  Christ,  cannot  be  said  to  have  gained 
the  sanction  of  General  Councils.  Certainly  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon  did  not  teach  it,  nor  does 
anything  in  its  acts  necessarily  warrant  the  in- 
ference that  Christ  was  ''man,"  and  not  *'a 
man,"  or  that  individuality  did  not  of  necessity 
inhere  in  His  human  nature.  The  decision  of 
Chalcedon  was  that  in  Christ  there  were  two 
natures  and  one  person.  Beyond  that  the 
council  did  not  go.  But  others  did  go  beyond 
this  statement,  reading  into  it  what  it  did  not 
originally  contain.  For  the  Council  of  Chalce- 
don, in  which  the  influence  of  the  Western 
Church  was  strong,  had  rendered  a  decision  not 
acceptable  to  the  Church  as  a  whole  in  the  East. 
It  had  also,  while  adopting  the  Western  view  of 
the  Incarnation,  neutralized  it  to  some  extent  in 
approving  the  term  ''Mother  of  God"  {0€ot6kos) 
as  the  designation  of  Mary. 

It  therefore  became  necessary  in  the  East  to 
work  over  the  decision  of  Chalcedon,  in  order  to 
bring  it  into  harmony  with  the  prevailing  popu- 
lar theology.  This  was  done  first  by  Leontius 
of  Byzantium  (c.  485-543  a.d.).  What  New- 
man undertook  to  do  for  the  Articles  of  the 


THE   INCARNATION  141 

Anglican  Church,  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
Leontius  accompHshed  in  the  sixth  century  for 
the  decrees  of  Chalcedon,  giving  them  a  sense 
which  reversed  their  original  purport,  and  by 
means  of  which  he  accommodated  himself  to 
their  statements.  ''He  was  the  first  definitely 
to  maintain  that  the  human  nature  of  Christ 
has  its  personality  in  the  Logos."  ^  ''A  devout 
disciple  of  Apollinaris,"  says  Harnack,  ''might 
properly  have  said,  in  reference  to  the  phrase  of 
Leontius,  *the  personality  of  the  human  nature 
is  in  the  Logos'  {vTroo-rrivai  iv  rw  \6y(o),  that 
Apollinaris  said  about  the  same  thing,  but  said 
it  in  plainer  words."  ^ 

From  this  time,  and  in  consequence  of  this 
view  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  no  further  interest 


*  Cf.  Harnack,  "Dogmengesch.,"  ii,  383  fF.,  Eng.  tr.,  v.  232  fF. 
Also  Loofs,  "Leitfaden,"  175,  185. 

^  See  ante,  p.  131.  The  consequence  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
impersonahty  of  the  human  nature  —  a  doctrine,  says  Dorner, 
"  sanctioned  by  no  QEcumenical  Council  "  —  is  this,  "Instead  of  our 
seeing  God  in  Christ,  who  is  also  the  veritable  Son  of  man,  full  of 
grace  and  truth,  the  humanity  of  Christ  must,  logically,  be  lowered 
to  the  position  of  a  mere  selfless  opyavov  of  God,  or  even 
to  that  of  a  mere  temple  or  garment."  It  was  a  further  conse- 
quence, that  the  Church  "made  such  a  use  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
impersonality  of  the  human  nature,  that  the  tendency  toward  the 
magical  view  of  the  operations  of  grace  and  toward  transubstan- 
tiation,  which  was  characteristic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  found  ever 
increased  satisfaction."  Dorner,  "Person  of  Christ,"  vol.  iii, 
pp.  116,  119. 


142  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

was  felt  in  the  study  of  the  life  of  Christ,  nor  any 
effort  made  to  get  deeper  insight  into  His  con- 
sciousness, or  His  teaching.  ''The  Exposition 
of  the  Orthodox  Faith,''  by  John  of  Damascus 
(754-787),  is  an  illustration  of  the  mechanical 
method  of  dealing  with  the  life  of  Jesus,  after 
separating  Him  from  humanity  and  nullifying  His 
human  nature,  no  matter  how  strongly  in  mere 
formulas  that  humanity  may  be  asserted.  Nor  is 
there  any  hope  for  the  Orthodox  Church  of  the 
East  so  long  as  the  Damascene  remains  its  most 
authoritative  theologian.  Since  Christ,  as  the 
Damascene  affirms,  ''is  not  an  individual," 
and  since  the  Incarnation  was  complete  from  the 
moment  of  His  conception,  actual  growth  in 
"wisdom"  or  "in  favor  with  God  and  man" 
cannot  be  predicated  without  qualification.  "  He 
receives  no  addition  to  these  attributes,"  but 
rather  manifests,  as  the  occasion  demands,  the 
wisdom  already  possessed,  adapting  it  to  the 
moment  as  the  years  increase,  and  simulating 
these  for  human  growth  ("Expos.,"  32).  The 
Gospel  narrative  tells  us  that  He  feared,  and 
these  are  His  own  words,  ''Now  is  my  soul 
troubled."  John  admits  the  fear  was  real,  and 
not  apparent,  but  ''now  means  just  when  He 
willed"  to  be  troubled  ("Expos.,"  23).  He 
prayed,  but  not  because  He  felt  any  "need  of 


THE    INCARNATION 


143 


uprising  toward  God,"  but  because  it  was  the 
action  appropriate  to  the  moment,  and  in  order 
to  become  an  example  to  us.  And  so  when  He 
said,  Father,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass 
from  me;  yet,  not  as  I  will  but  as  thou  wilt,  *'Is  it 
not  clear  to  all,"  so  runs  the  comment,  **that  He 
said  this  as  a  lesson  to  us  to  ask  help  in  our  trials 
only  from  God,  and  to  prefer  God's  will  to 
our  own,  and  as  a  proof  that  He  did  actually 
appropriate  to  Himself  the  attributes  of  our 
nature?''  (34,35)/ 

The  view  of  the  Incarnation  maintained  by 
John  of  Damascus  met  with  clear-sighted  op- 
position for  the  first  time  in  the  teaching  of 
Luther,  who,  according  to  Dorner, 

''insisted  on  the  reality  of  the  humanity  of 
Christ,  even  in  the  matter  of  growth.  He 
earnestly  and  distinctly  repudiates  all  those 
mythical  elements  which  the  legends  of  the 
Church  had  introduced  into  the  life  of  the 
child  Jesus.  Not  merely  as  to  the  physical, 
but  also  as  to  the  spiritual  aspects  of  Christ's 

^  Cf.  Dorner,  "Person  of  Christ,"  iii,  205  fF.,  for  a  critical 
study  and  estimate  of  John  of  Damascus.  His  "Exposition"  was 
translated  into  Latin,  and  from  its  use  by  Peter  the  Lombard,  his 
teaching  on  the  Incarnation  passed  over  into  scholastic  mediaeval 
theology  and  held  its  own  until  the  Reformation  brought  a  change, 
and  Augustine  came  again  to  his  own. 


144  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

humanity,  does  he  maintain  that  He  under- 
went an  actual  development.  He  was  in  all 
respects  like  other  children,  with  the  single 
exception  of  sin.  Though  he  decidedly 
represents  the  life  of  Jesus  as  at  once  divine 
and  human  from  the  very  commencement, 
he  is  equally  sincere  in  teaching  that  He 
increased,  as  in  years,  so  also  in  wisdom  and 
in  favor  with  God  and  men.  His  humanity 
was  not  omniscient  but  was  under  the  ne- 
cessity of  learning,  though  perhaps  not  from 
men.  Although  the  Spirit  did  dwell  in  Him 
from  the  beginning,  but  as  His  body  grew, 
and  His  reason  grew  in  a  natural  way  like 
that  of  other  men,  so  did  the  Spirit  penetrate 
into  and  pervade  Him  even  more  fully  and 
moved  Him  the  longer  the  more.  It  is, 
therefore,  no  pretence  when  Luke  says :  He 
became  strong  in  the  Spirit.  The  older  He 
grew,  the  greater  He  grew;  the  greater, 
the  more  rational;  the  more  rational,  the 
stronger  in  Spirit  and  the  fuller  of  wisdom 
before  God,  in  Himself,  and  before  the 
people.  These  words  need  no  gloss.  Such 
a  view  too  is  attended  with  no  danger,  and  is 
Christian ;  whether  it  contradicts  the  articles 
of  faith  invented  by  them  or  not,  is  of  no 
consequence.      Although    Jesus    continued 


THE   INCARNATION  145 

invariably  obedient,  He  was,  notwithstand- 
ing, compelled  to  learn  obedience.  The  tra- 
ditional expedient  of  saying  that  Christ 
merely  played  our  part,  Luther  refused  to 
employ."^ 

It  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  introduce  here 
a  similar  representative  utterance  of  Anglican 
theology.  It  is  taken  from  a  sermon  by  the 
late  Archer  Butler,  on  the  text,  *'If  any  man  will 
come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take 
up  his  cross  and  follow  me  " ;  and  it  is  chosen 
for  citation  here  because  of  its  beautiful  and 
felicitous  expression  of  a  great  truth :  — 

"I  speak  then  of  the  daily  self-denial  of 
the  Son  of  God  which  is  here  set  forth  as 
the  model  of  ours,  for  it  is  only  as  we  under- 
stand the  model  that  we  can  expect  to  under- 
stand the  copy.  ...  I  bring  before  you  this 
divine  person  visiting  the  regions  of  pain  in 
such  a  sense  as  to  be  our  example;  for  so 
the  text  represents  Him.  I  exhibit  Him,  as 
it  does,  suffering  as  He  would  have  us  suffer, 
suffering,  therefore,  that  He  may  accomplish 
a  refining  and  exalting  change  upon  Himself; 

^  Cf.  Dorner,  "Person  of  Christ,"  Eng.  tr.,  div.  ii,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
91  fF.,  from  whose  presentation  the  above  is  sHghtly  abridged. 


146  FREEDOM    IN    THE  CHURCH 

not  then  upon  Himself  simply  as  God,  for  as 
such  change  and  exaltation  are  alike  impos- 
sible, but  upon  Himself  as  man,  and,  there- 
fore, susceptible  of  all  the  improvement 
which  the  original  principles  of  that  part  of 
the  creation  will  allow.  It  is  of  the  fiery 
trial  I  would  speak,  through  which  He  bore 
our  nature,  till  He  had.  Himself  the  sufferer, 
made  it  fit  to  be  the  shrine  of  a  God,  the 
temple  in  which  He  has  chosen  to  dwell  for 
everlasting.  Christ  the  Atoner  we  acknowl- 
edge and  adore ;  but  it  is  before  Christ  the 
Purifier  we  bend  to-day. 

''That  this  purifying  purpose  in  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ  is  recognized  in  the  Scrip- 
tural accounts  of  His  redemption  of  our  race, 
I  suppose  I  need  not  remind  you.  The  're- 
finer's fire'  was  itself  refined;  Himself  He 
perfected  to  perfect  us.  He  is  everywhere 
described  as  being  ever  tempted,  just  as  we 
are,  though  ever  victorious,  as  —  alas  !  —  we 
are  not ;  nor  can  we  doubt  the  disciplinary 
character  of  this  constant  and  painful 
struggle,  when  we  are  told  that,  'though  a 
Son,  He  learned  obedience  by  the  things 
which  He  suffered,'  that  He  was  'made  per- 
fect through  sufferings,'  and  by  that  means 
*  became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation  to 


THE    INCARNATION  147 

all  them  that  obey  Him.'  Everywhere  His 
trial  is  made  accurately  to  answer  to  our 
own.  Nor  surely  can  we,  with  any  reason, 
doubt  that  its  result  upon  His  own  human- 
ity must  have  been  similar  to  that  which  we 
know  the  same  processes  produce,  and  are  in- 
tended to  produce,  amongourselves.  We  find 
Him  immersed  in  the  same  difficulties,  sup- 
ported by  the  same  faith,  acting  in  view  of 
the  same  reward,  'in  all  things  made  like 
unto  His  brethren';  and  we  know  that  His 
human  nature  was  capable  of  the  natural 
course  of  advancement,  that  He  could 
'grow  in  wisdom,'  and  in  years;  we  may 
well  believe  that  even  in  Christ  Himself 
those  vigils  of  prayer  so  often  recorded,  those 
weary  wanderings,  those  patient  'endurances 
of  contradictions,'  the  agonies  of  the  garden, 
the  final  struggle  of  the  cross,  had  power  to 
raise  and  refine  the  human  element  of  His 
being  beyond  the  simple  purity  of  its  original 
innocence;  that  though  ever  and  equally 
*  without  sin,'  the  dying  Christ  was  some- 
thing more  consummate  still  than  the  Christ 
baptized  in  Jordan."  ^ 

^"Sermons,"  First  Series,  Philadelphia,  1856,  57-58.  The 
publication  of  these  sermons  was  an  event,  both  in  England  and 
America.     The  lamented  author,  a  divine  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 


148  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

This  quotation  does  not  exhaust  the  argu- 
ment. The  writer  goes  on  to  say  that  the  prin- 
ciple at  issue  in  the  Incarnation  is  that  virtue 
tried  and  triumphant  ranks  above  innocence. 
If  Christ  were  to  possess  the  utmost  perfection 
of  our  nature  in  the  humanity  aUied  to  His  God- 
head, He  must  possess  it  in  the  state  of  victorious 
trial.  Such  a  state  might  have  been  wrought  by 
some  sudden  and  supernatural  illapse  of  grace. 
*'But  such  a  perfection  thus  struck  out  at  a  beat 
by  the  instantaneous  omnipotence  of  miracle, 
would  have  formed  a  manhood  so  utterly  re- 
moved from  our  own,  that  it  would  have  neu- 
tralized nearly  every  discernible  purpose  of 
Him,  who  in  the  fulness  of  an  all-pervading 
sympathy  with  man  as  such,  *took  not  on  Him 
the  nature  of  angels  but  the  seed  of  Abraham.'" 
Nor  is  it  *'any  more  a  derogation  to  the  dignity 
of  Christ  to  suppose  him  capable  of  moral  ad- 
vancement," or  that  '*as  a  man  he  should  have 
been  capable  of  improvement,"  than  it  is  to  hold 
that  *'as  a  man  He  should  not  be  infinite."  ^ 

But  it  was  just  this  view  of  the  person  of  Christ 
which  John  of  Damascus  held   in  abhorrence, 

land,  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-three.     At  the  time  of  his  death  he 
was  professor  of  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Dublin.     After 
his  death  was  published  his  "Lectures  on  Ancient  Philosophy." 
^  "Sermons,"  iii,  58,  59. 


THE    INCARNATION  149 

and  for  which  he  reserved  his  strongest  epithets 
of  condemnation.  To  his  mind  it  undid  the 
Incarnation;  it  was  an  insuh  to  Christ,  for  He 
was  not  **a  man"  nor  an  ^'individual  man"; 
and  by  the  instantaneous  omnipotence  of  a 
miracle  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin,  He  had  been 
made  pure  and  stainless  and  His  moral  perfec- 
tion was  complete  from  His  birth. 

The  word  which  includes  and  sums  up  the 
doctrine  of  John  of  Damascus,  is  ^eoro/co?, 
^^the  Mother  of  God,^'  as  applied  to  Mary. 
About  that  word  the  whole  long  controversy 
turned  in  the  ancient  Church,  from  the  fifth  to 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  until  the  weary 
struggle  was  over.  Its  use  originated  in  the 
East,  in  the  fourth  century,  and  it  stimulated,  as 
well  as  justified,  the  worship  of  Mary,  whatever 
may  have  been  its  source.  The  word  was  un- 
heard of  in  the  first  three  centuries.  Nor  did 
the  Western  or  Latin  Church  take  kindly  to  it 
at  first.  In  commenting  on  the  actual  birth 
of  Christ,  in  connection  with  the  words, 
''Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee?  Mine 
hour  is  not  yet  come,"  Augustine  remarks :  — 

''He  rather  admonishes  us  to  understand 
that,  in  respect  of  His  being  God,  there  was  no 
mother  for  Him^  the  part  of  whose  personal 


ISO  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

majesty  He  was  preparing  to  show  forth  in 
the  turning  of  water  into  wine.  But  as  re- 
gards being  crucified,  He  was  crucified  in 
respect  of  His  being  man,  and  that  was  the 
hour  which  had  not  come  as  yet,  at  the  time 
when  this  word  was  spoken,  'What  have  I 
to  do  with  thee  ?  Mine  hour  is  not  yet  come ' ; 
that  is,  the  hour  at  which  I  shall  recognize 
thee.  For  at  that  period,  when  He  was  cru- 
cified as  man.  He  recognized  his  human 
mother  and  committed  her  most  humanely 
to  the  care  of  the  best-beloved  disciple." 

Pope  Celestine  (f  432)  first  used  the  word  Oeo- 
roK09  in  the  West,  during  the  Pelagian  controversy. 
Leo  the  Great  (t46i)  used  it,  but  sparingly. 
In  his  time  the  fierce  controversy  had  begun  in 
the  course  of  which  deoroKo^  was  sanctioned 
as  the  highest  and  final  test  of  orthodoxy. 
That  controversy  had  been  precipitated  by  Nes- 
torius,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  did 
not  realize  that  the  word  stood  not  only  for  a 
theory  of  the  Incarnation,  but  also  expressed  the 
ground  for  the  worship  of  Mary  as  the  highest 
of  all  celestial  beings,  who  stood  close  to  the 
throne  of  the  Eternal  Trinity.  His  rejection  of 
the  term  '*  Mother  of  God"  produced,  says  Soc- 
rates, the  historian,  **a  discussion  which  agitated 


THE    INCARNATION  151 

the  whole  Church,  resembling  the  struggle  of 
combatants  in  the  dark,  all  parties  uttering  the 
most  confused  and  contradictory  assertions."  ^ 
When  the  Council  of  Ephesus  (431  a.d.)  gave  its 
approval  to  the  word  ^eord/co?,  the  great  crowd 
of  people  filling  the  city  ''burst  forth  into  ex- 
clamations of  joy,  and  escorted  the  judges  who 
had  deposed  and  excommunicated  Nestorius 
with  torches  and  incense  to  their  homes,  cele- 
brating the  occasion  by  a  general  illumination." 


^  By  Nestorianism  is  generally  understood  such  a  separation  of 
the  two  natures  in  Christ  as  to  amount  virtually  to  a  double  per- 
sonality. At  the  time  of  the  controversy  he  was  charged  with 
denying  the  divinity  of  Christ.  On  this  point  the  words  of  a  con- 
temporary, Socrates,  the  ecclesiastical  historian,  are  worthy  of 
being  recalled:  "Then  indeed  the  discussion  which  agitated  the 
whole  Church  resembled  the  struggle  of  combatants  in  the  dark, 
all  parties  uttering  the  most  confused  and  contradictory  assertions. 
The  general  impression  was  that  Nestorius  was  tinctured  with  the 
errors  of  Paul  of  Samosata  and  Photinus,  and  was  desirous  of 
foisting  on  the  Church  the  blasphemous  dogma  that  the  Lord  was 
a  mere  man;  and  so  great  a  clamor  was  raised  by  the  contention 
that  it  was  deemed  requisite  to  convene  a  general  council  to  take 
cognizance  of  the  matter  in  dispute.  Having  myself  perused  the 
writings  of  Nestorius,  I  shall  candidly  express  the  conviction  of  my 
own  mind  concerning  him;  and  as,  in  entire  freedom  from  per- 
sonal antipathies,  I  have  already  alluded  to  his  faults,  I  shall  in 
hke  manner  be  unbiassed  by  the  criminations  of  his  adversaries 
to  derogate  from  his  merits.  I  cannot  then  concede  that  he  was 
either  a  follower  of  the  heretics  with  whom  he  was  classed,  or  that 
he  denied  the  Divinity  of  Christ :  but  he  seemed  scared  at  the  term 
theotokos,  as  though  it  were  some  terrible  phantom."  ("  H.  E.," 
vii,  32.) 


152  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

There  is  an  ancient  ''Oration,  concerning 
Simeon  and  Anna,"  wrongly  attributed  to  Me- 
thodius, whose  exact  date  is  unknown,  but  it 
expresses  the  mood  of  the  hour,  when,  after  the 
victory  of  Ephesus,  Mary  was  enthroned  as  a 
deity  to  be  worshipped. 

''What  shall  I  say  to  thee,  O  mother  virgin 
and  virgin-mother.  For  the  praise  even  of 
her,  who  is  not  man's  work,  exceeds  the 
power  of  man.  .  .  .  Receive,  O  Lady 
most  benignant,  gifts  precious,  and  such  as 
are  fitted  to  thee  alone,  O  thou  who  art  ex- 
alted above  all  generations,  and  who  among 
all  created  things  both  visible  and  invisible 
shinest  forth  as  the  most  honorable.  .  .  . 
God  is  in  the  midst  of  thee,  and  thou  shalt 
not  be  moved,  for  the  Most  High  hath  made 
holy  the  place  of  His  tabernacle.  ...  By 
thee  the  Lord  hath  appeared,  the  God  of 
hosts  with  us.  .  .  .  Blessed  of  the  Lord 
is  thy  name,  full  of  divine  grace,  and  grateful 
exceedingly  to  God,  mother  of  God,  thou 
that  givest  light  to  the  faithful,  .  .  .  the 
mother  of  the  Creator,  .  .  .  the  upholder  of 
Him  who  upholds  all  things  by  His  word 
.  .  .  the  spotless  robe  of  Him  who  clothes 
Himself  with  light  as  with  a  garment.     Thou 


THE    INCARNATION  153 

hast  lent  to  God,  who  stands  in  need  of 
nothing,  that  flesh  which  he  had  not,  in  or- 
der that  the  omnipotent  might  become  that 
which  it  was  His  good  pleasure  to  be.  What 
is  more  splendid  than  this  ?  What  than  this 
is  more  sublime  ?  He  who  fills  earth  and 
heaven,  whose  are  all  things,  has  become 
in  need  of  thee,  for  thou  hast  lent  to  God 
that  flesh  which  He  had  not.  Thou  hast 
clad  the  mighty  one  with  that  beauteous 
panoply  of  the  body,  by  which  it  has  become 
possible  for  Him  to  be  seen  by  mine  eyes. 
Hail !  Hail !  Mother  and  handmaid  of  God. 
Hail !  Hail !  thou  to  whom  the  great  Creator 
of  all  is  a  debtor,"  etc.^ 

In  the  '^Dialogues"  of  Theodoret  (1457), 
—  the  ''Blessed"  Theodoret,  as  his  title  runs,  — 
bishop  of  Cyrus,  may  be  found  the  argument 

*  Among  the  prayers  offered  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  these  are  cited 
in  the  writings  of  the  English  Reformers,  as  involving  blasphemy :  — 

"Our  hope  and  trust  are  put  in  thee,  O  Virgin  Mary;  defend  us 
everlastingly." 

"O  happy  mother  which  dost  purge  us  from  our  sins." 

"Thou  art  the  mediator  between  God  and  Man,  the  advocate 
of  the  poor,  the  refuge  of  all  sinners." 

"Thou  art  the  Lady  of  Angels.  Thou  art  the  Queen  of  Heaven. 
Command  thy  Son.  Show  thyself  to  be  a  mother.  He  is  thy  Son; 
thou  art  His  mother;  the  mother  may  command;  the  child  must 
obey." 

"Come  unto  her  all  ye  that  travail  and  are  heavy  laden." 


154  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

of  a  great  thinker,  who  disputed  the  term 
*' Mother  of  God  "  as  defective  and  inaccurate, 
and  dangerous,  since  it  suppressed  the  humanity 
of  Christ,  and  gave  one-sided  expression  to  His 
divinity.  But  it  was  for  just  that  reason,  that 
the  term  was  welcome.  It  made  the  humanity 
illusory  and  unreal,  in  order  to  establish  the 
unity  of  the  personality.  The  humanity  was 
absorbed  in  the  divinity.  All  that  remained 
of  the  humanity  was  the  pneumatic  flesh,  the 
garb  of  deity,  the  flesh  with  its  life-giving  power, 
which  Mary  contributed.  It  is  not  without  a 
sense  of  pathos  one  reads  the  protest  of  The- 
odoret,  now  that  fifteen  centuries  have  gone  by 
since  he  wrote.  The  tide  was  against  him; 
his  protest  was  in  vain.  What  Newman  wrote, 
when  he  became  aware  that  the  doctrine  of  papal 
infallibihty  would  be  decreed,  we  may  take  as 
the  language  Theodoret  might  have  used  as  he 
witnessed  the  revolution  in  the  ancient  Church. 
'*If  it  is  God's  will  that  the  phrase  'Mother  of 
God'  shall  be  confirmed,  then  it  is  God's  will 
to  throw  back  the  times  and  moments  of  that 
triumph  which  He  has  destined  for  His  King- 
dom, and  I  shall  feel  I  have  but  to  bow  my  head 
to  His  adorable,  inscrutable  Providence." 

Most  inscrutable  was  the  Providence  brood- 
ing over  that  ancient  Eastern  world  while  these 


THE    INCARNATION  155 

things  were  transacting.  Heroic  efforts  had 
not  been  wanting,  and  many  sacrifices  had  been 
made  to  overcome  the  tendency  which  was  dis- 
sipating the  humanity  of  Christ  into  an  illusory 
dream,  and  these  efforts  may  not  have  been 
wholly  in  vain,  for  future  ages,  even  though  at 
the  time  they  were  futile.  Nothing  could  stem 
the  tide  which  was  sweeping  over  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  people  and  carrying  the  Church  to 
the  enthusiastic  worship  of  the  Mother  of  God. 
The  strength  of  a  people  lies  in  its  consciousness 
of  God ;  and  just  in  proportion  as  it  knows  God 
and  worships  Him  is  a  people  strong.  But  God 
was  disappearing  from  the  thought  and  life. 
And  Christ  also,  the  strong  Christ  of  the  Gos- 
pels, the  leader  of  humanity,  who  had  come  to 
reveal  God,  He  had  been  reduced  to  an  in- 
fant in  His  mother's  arms,  and  it  was  the  Christ- 
child  who  could  appeal  to  His  mother's  love 
and  sympathy,  which  also  appealed  to  the  de- 
teriorating religious  instincts  of  the  age.  When 
the  Providence  of  God  was  fully  revealed,  it 
broke  upon  the  world  in  the  invasion  of  the  Sar- 
acens, who  easily  took  possession  of  the  territory 
of  the  Eastern  Church.  Asia  Minor,  nursing 
mother  of  so  many  religions,  where  the  cult  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  had  also  found  most  fertile 
soil,  succumbed  to  the  invasion  of  the  followers 


156  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

of  the  prophet,  whose  war-cry  and  religion  were 
the  same,  ''There  is  one  God."  That  had  been 
also  the  original  war-cry  of  the  Christian  Church 
as  it  entered  the  Roman  Empire  to  begin  its 
unparalleled  career  of  conquest.  Turn  to  the 
Christian  apologists  of  the  age  before  Constan- 
tine  for  the  impressive  contrast.  Very  little 
had  they  to  say  about  the  Virgin-birth  and 
nothing  about  the  Mother  of  God.  They  were 
preoccupied  with  God  the  Father,  the  Being 
spiritual  and  invisible,  whose  providence  over 
all  the  world  was  most  real  and  powerful,  and 
extended  to  each  individual  man,  who  ruled  the 
world  in  righteousness  and  was  calling  it  to 
judgment.  This  conviction  of  God  had  been 
raised  to  the  highest  degree  of  motive  power 
by  the  coming  of  Christ,  His  only  Son  our  Lord, 
and  it  was  not  the  glories  of  Mary,  nor  the 
winning  arts  of  the  Christ-child  that  broke  the 
power  of  the  Roman  Empire,  but  the  strong  Lord 
Christ,  whom  the  apologists  drew  as  a  real  man, 
in  the  historic  reality  of  his  earthly  life.  God 
was  then  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto 
Himself  and  fulfilling  the  promise  and  potency 
of  the  Incarnation.  But  when  the  Eastern 
Church  entered  on  the  way  of  decline  and 
degeneracy  —  it  was  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  that  the  decline  began  to  be  apparent, 


THE    INCARNATION  157 

which  is  also  the  date  of  the  great  Council  of 
Chalcedon  —  then  it  is  not  God  they  are  talking 
and  thinking  about,  but  the  relation  of  Christ 
to  Mary,  and  how  the  Virgin-birth  is  related  to 
Christ's  divinity  and  to  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind. In  the  earlier  age  when  the  Church  was 
winning  its  stupendous  victory  over  the  Roman 
Empire,  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  his  Godhood 
had  been  set  forth  as  most  manifest  in  His  life 
and  character.  His  deeds.  His  words.  In  the 
age  that  followed,  of  decHne  and  weakness.  His 
divinity  had  come  to  be  dependent  on  the  exact 
nature  of  the  incident  of  His  birth.  In  the  ear- 
lier period  they  were  fighting  to  the  death  the 
corrupt  mythology  of  the  old  world,  which 
concealed  God  or  denied  Him.  In  the  later  age 
the  mythological  tendency  revived,  with  the 
Virgin-mother  for  its  centre,  and  God  was 
smothered  in  the  mazy  labyrinth  where  the 
consciousness  of  the  Church  was  wandering. 

How  was  it  in  Western  or  Latin  Christendom  ? 
We  cannot  tell  what  Augustine  might  have  done, 
had  he  lived  to  confront  the  Council  of  Ephesus 
or  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  as  they  gave  their 
sanction  to  the  expression  *' Mother  of  God,'' 
wherein  was  wrapped  up,  as  in  a  germ,  that 
theory  of  the  Incarnation  which  he  rejected.  He 
was  taken  away  from  the  evil  to  come.     The 


158  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

West  was  fast  sinking  into  barbarism,  in  the 
year  430  when  he  died,  and  in  that  very  year 
the  Vandals  were  knocking  for  entrance  at  the 
gates  of  Hippo.  It  was  no  longer  a  time  for 
theologizing.  Dialectic  gave  way  to  organiza- 
tion and  to  action.  No  one  arose  after  him  who 
was  his  equal  in  the  West.  He  was  read  and 
studied,  and  his  name  carried  great  influence 
both  in  the  earlier  and  later  Middle  Ages.  But 
so  far  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Eucharist  were  concerned.  Western  theologians 
followed  other  lights.  They  finally  yielded  to 
the  prestige  of  the  East  on  these  issues,  and  not 
Augustine,  but  John  of  Damascus  became  their 
teacher.  They  were  aware  as  they  made  their 
departure  in  this  direction  that  Augustine 
no  longer  served  them.  When  his  name  and 
authority  were  appealed  to  in  behalf  of  doctrines 
the  Church  was  rejecting,  the  answer  was  made 
that  *'the  holy  doctor  of  Hippo,  fatigued  by  the 
labors  of  composition,  had  not  always  made  his 
thought  sufficiently  clear ;  and  thus  was  explained 
how,  for  the  ignorant,  he  was  a  source  of  error ; 
but  if,  what  was  impossible  should  be  the 
case,  he  had  erred  upon  so  great  a  mystery,  it 
would  be,  indeed,  an  occasion  for  repeating  the 
words  of  St.  Paul,  'If  an  angel  from  heaven 
preach  any  other  Gospel  unto  you  than  that 


THE   INCARNATION  159 

which  we  have  preached  unto  you,  let  him  be 
accursed.' "  ^  So  John  of  Damascus  superseded 
Augustine  on  the  Incarnation,  as  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist. 
The  Eastern,  or  Oriental,  interpretation  of  the 
Christian  mysteries  dominated  the  West.  From 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  the  worship 
of  the  Virgin-mother  made  rapid  strides.  Al- 
ready indeed  the  Latin  Church  was  adding 
another  element  to  the  Marian  mythology, — 
the  immaculate  conception  of  Mary,  which  the 
Eastern  Church  had  not  known.  But  this 
was  thought  necessary  in  order  to  make  more 
secure  the  sinlessness  of  Christ  and  the  purity 
of  His  life-giving  flesh.  It  did  not  become  a 
formal  dogma  till  a  later  age  (1854),  but  it  was 
a  belief  widely  prevalent  from  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury and  earlier.^ 

And  the  outcome  of  it  all  in  Western  Chris- 

^  "Durandus  Troarnen,"  cited  by  BatifFol,  in  **L*Eucharistie," 

P-  379- 

^  Roman  Catholic  theologians  defend  the  recent  Latin  dogma 
(1854)  that  Mary  herself  was  immaculately  conceived,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  contained  implicitly  in  the  action  of  the  Third 
General  Council  which  canonized  Mary  as  the  Mother  of  God. 
The  Roman  Church,  says  Duchesne,  received  the  cult  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  from  the  Greek  Church  {d' importation  byzantine),  and  Latin 
theologians  are  surprised  when  Episcopal  voices  in  the  Greek 
Church  now  protest  against  the  new  honors  which  the  Roman 
Church  has  decreed  to  the  Mother  of  God.  ("  Eglises  Separees," 
p.  no.) 


i6o  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

tendom.  The  consciousness  of  the  Latin  Medi- 
aeval Church  found  most  rare  and  wonderful 
expression  in  the  ecclesiastical  art  of  the  Renais- 
sance. There  it  was  unmistakably  evident,  even 
if  it  were  not  in  so  many  other  ways,  that  it  was 
the  Virgin  Mary,  not  God,  not  Christ,  whom 
Christendom  was  worshipping,  to  whom  it 
looked  for  aid  and  protection.  Once  more  the 
conviction  is  borne  in  upon  us  by  the  teaching 
of  history  that  it  is  the  consciousness  of  God 
which  makes  a  people  strong.  That  conscious- 
ness had  well-nigh  died  out  in  Italy,  where  the 
Renaissance  had  its  birth.  As  the  contents  of 
the  mediaeval  religious  life  were  exhibited  on 
the  canvas  with  the  skill  of  a  matchless  art,  the 
proportions  of  faith  became  apparent.  The  land 
was  covered  with  Madonnas ;  the  people  fed  upon 
them  to  satiety.  The  few  efforts  to  represent  God 
the  Father  resulted  in  a  venerable  head,  weak  and 
inefficient  and  lacking  even  the  power  of  Jupi- 
ter Capitolinus,  who  seems  to  have  been  taken 
for  a  model.  It  may  have  been  the  limits  of  art 
that  were  at  fault.  None  the  less  striking  is  the 
result.  And  as  for  Italy,  alone  among  the 
nations  she  was  unable  to  take  the  first  steps 
toward  national  independence  and  freedom,  but 
fell  under  the  thraldom  of  a  foreign  power, 
going  down  into  the  sleep  of  death  for  ages  before 
her  resurrection  came. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   CHANGE   IN   THE    DOCTRINE   OF  THE   INCAR- 
NATION  AT   THE    REFORMATION 

The  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  Eng- 
lish people,  of  the  English  Church  and  the  Eng- 
lish nation  in  the  sixteenth  century  is  the  pre- 
vailing sense  of  the  presence  of  God.  It  may 
be  discerned  in  the  literature  of  the  age,  which, 
in  its  ephemeral  products  even,  assumes  a  reli- 
gious tone,  because  of  the  consciousness  that 
the  will  of  God  is  manifested  in  the  nation's 
experience.  Only  this  deep,  widespread  con- 
viction, that  God  was  acting,  leading,  and  pro- 
tecting the  nation,  would  have  sufficed  to  carry 
it  through  the  perils  of  the  great  transition.  The 
state  took  on  a  divine  character,  the  king's  will 
was  regarded  as  divine,  because  it  was  in  har- 
mony with  the  people's  will,  and  the  will  of  the 
people  was  reflecting  the  will  of  God.  The 
majesty  of  the  Divine  supremacy  dwarfed  all 
minor  considerations  and  relegated  them  to  a 
subordinate  position.  This  feeling  grew  from 
the  time  when  England,  first  of  the  nations, 

M  l6l 


i62  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

stepped  forth  from  the  fold  of  mediaeval  Chris- 
tendom, declaring  the  state  to  be  independent, 
and,  under  God,  competent  to  rule  its  own  affairs. 
From  this  time  (1534)  the  belief  grew  stronger 
that  God  was  leading,  and  in  Him  was  protec- 
tion and  safety;  till  it  culminated,  at  the  moment 
when  Latin  Christendom,  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Pope,  concentrated  its  energies  for  the 
conquest  of  the  rebellious  nation.  Then,  at 
the  Armada,  it  became  the  national  conviction 
that  the  victory  was  not  due  to  human  agencies. 
**God  blew"  with  His  winds,  and  the  fleet  of  the 
enemy  was  scattered  or  went  down  like  lead  in 
the  mighty  waters,  and  England  was  free.  From 
that  time  England's  greatness  began  to  be  felt. 
She  advanced  to  the  leadership  amongthe  nations, 
and  has  developed  into  a  world  power,  in  com- 
parison with  which  the  civilization  that  grew  up 
around  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  with  Rome  as 
its  centre,  seems  small  and  insignificant.^ 
In  this  great  hour  of  her  history,  the  English 

^  There  are  many  histories  of  England  and  of  the  Reformation, 
but  in  none  of  them  have  the  issues  at  stake  been  more  clearly 
apprehended  than  by  Froude.  The  criticism  his  work  encoun- 
tered was  inspired  to  a  large  degree  by  religious  and  political 
prejudices.  "He  held  strong  views,"  says  Pollard,  "and  he  made 
some  mistakes;  but  his  mistakes  were  no  greater  than  those  of 
other  historians,  and  there  are  not  half  a  dozen  histories  in  the 
English  language  which  have  been  based  on  so  exhaustive  a  survey 
of  original  materials."    "Life  of  Cranmer,"  p.  viii. 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     163 

Church  was  not  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  shore 
up  the  tottering  Christianity  of  the  Middle  Ages 
or  even  of  the  ancient  cathoHc  Church  in  so 
far  as  it  had  influenced  perversely  mediaeval 
dogmatic  forms.  To  get  back  to  the  will  of 
Christ  and  to  the  commandments  of  God  was 
the  deliberate  intention.  At  such  moments  in 
history  it  is  given  to  see  more  plainly  the  issues 
that  are  vital  to  national  prosperity.  The  Eng- 
lish Reformation  had  in  it  the  elements  of  revo- 
lution. It  was  not  the  letter  and  the  text  of 
creeds,  but  Scripture  as  the  Word  of  God,  to 
which  the  Church  gave  the  highest  place.  And 
the  doctrine  which  the  Church  received  was 
received  from  Scripture,  not  from  tradition;  as 
Christ  had  commanded  and  not  as  men  had  taught. 

The  chief  evil  to  be  overcome  was  not,  as  in 
the  case  of  Germany,  the  system  of  indulgences, 
for  from  that  evil  England  had  not  so  greatly 
suffered ;  but  rather  the  worship  of  man,  which 
had  been  substituted  for  the  worship  of  God. 
Mary  worship,  saint  worship,  image  worship, 
against  these  the  protest  was  made;  and  the 
steps  taken  to  secure  their  abolition  were  radical 
and  thoroughgoing,  quite  as  much  so  as  in  any 
other  country  where  the  Reformation  prevailed. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  primary  object  was  to 
give  Christ  an  opportunity  once  more  to  be  known 


i64  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

in  Himself,  apart  from  His  mother,  —  to  be 
heard  and  seen,  as  when  He  once  Hved  among 
men.  For  this  reason  Scripture  was  made 
supreme,  because  it  contained  the  record  of  His 
life  and  the  comment  on  that  life  by  inspired 
evangelists,  apostles,  and  teachers.  The  Church 
before  the  Reformation  had  lost  the  clew  to  the 
meaning  of  the  New  Testament,  and  for  that 
reason  did  not  find  it  so  edifying  as  extracts  from 
the  fathers.  A  higher  conception  of  the  Incar- 
nation, which  made  the  life  of  Christ  historic 
and  real,  instead  of  illusory  and  perfunctory, 
was  the  first  consideration,  —  in  accordance 
with  the  words  of  St.  Augustine:  — 

"It  behoveth  us,  to  take  great  heed,  lest 
while  we  go  about  to  maintain  the  glorious 
Deity  of  Him  which  is  man,  we  leave  Him 
not  the  true  bodily  substance  of  a  man." 
(Ep.,  187.) 

To  insist  upon  His  glorious  Deity,  but  also  to 
regain  the  humanity  which  had  been  lost,  was 
the  aim.  The  Church  of  England  redefined  the 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  and  as  General  Coun- 
cils stood  in  the  way,  or  their  wrong  interpreta- 
tion, she  cleared  the  ground  for  action  by  de- 
claring that  they  not  only  *' might  err,"  but  ''had 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     165 


erred 


in  things  pertaining  to  God." 
came    to    defining    the    Incarnation, 


When  it 
the    term 

''Mother  of  God,"  which  the  councils  had  sanc- 
tioned, was  rejected.  With  that  exception,  the 
second  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  is  in  substan- 
tial harmony  with  the  definition  of  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon,  but  that  exception  is  an  impor- 
tant and  vital  one. 


Church  of  England 

Article  II 

The  Son  which  is  the  Word 
of  the  Father,  begotten  from 
everlasting  of  the  Father,  the 
very  and  eternal  God,  and  of 
one  substance  with  the  Father, 
took  Man's  nature  in  the  womb 
of  the  blessed  Virgin,  of  her 
substance :  so  that  two  whole 
and  perfect  natures,  that  is  to 
say,  the  Godhead  and  Manhood, 
were  joined  together  in  one  Per- 
son never  to  be  divided,  whereof 
is  one  Christ,  very  God,  and 
very  Man. 


The  Symbol  of  Chalcedon, 
451 

We,  then,  following  the  holy 
Father,  all  with  one  consent, 
teach  men  to  confess  one  and 
the  same  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  perfect  in  God- 
head and  also  perfect  in  man- 
hood; truly  God  and  truly 
man,  of  a  reasonable  (rational) 
soul  and  body;  consubstantial 
(coessential)  with  the  Father 
according  to  the  Godhead,  and 
consubstantial  w^ith  us  accord- 
ing to  the  manhood;  in  all 
things  like  unto  us,  without 
sin;  begotten  before  all  ages 
of  the  Father  according  to  the 
Godhead,  and  in  these  latter 
days,  for  us  and  for  our  sal- 
vation, born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  the  Mother  of  God^  ac- 
cording to  the  manhood;  one 
and  the  same  Christ,  Son,  Lord, 
Only  begotten,  to  be  acknowl- 


i66  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 


Church  of  England  The  Symbol  of  Chalcedon, 

Continued  451  —  Continued 

edged  in  two  natures,  incon- 
fusedly,  unchangeably,  indivis- 
ibly,  inseparably ;  the  distinction 
of  natures  being  by  no  means 
taken  away  by  the  union,  but 
rather  the  property  of  each  na- 
ture being  preserved,  and  con- 
curring in  one  Person  and  one 
subsistence,  not  parted  or  di- 
vided into  two  persons,  but  one 
and  the  same  Son  and  only 
begotten,  God  the  Word,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


No  one  can  measure  the  significance  of  this 
action  of  the  Church  without  full  knowledge 
of  the  history  of  the  fifth  century.  Two  things 
were  involved  in  it.  One  was  the  removal  of  the 
curse  which  had  lain  upon  theAntiochican  School, 
because  they  spoke  against  the  term,  Theotokos : 
''Nestorius  hated  of  God,  and  Diodorus,  and 
Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia  and  their  diabohcal 
tribe,"  says  the  theologian  John  of  Damascus; 
and  the  other  result  was  the  freedom  gained  for 
theological  advance  by  emancipation  from  the 
prescription  of  tradition.  The  word  theo- 
tokos was  mischievous  and  misleading.  It  jars 
upon  the  reader  of  the  definition  of  Chalcedon 
as  not  in  harmony  with  its  real  purpose,  —  a  com- 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   INCARNATION     167 

promise  or  concession  made  in  the  interest  of 
peace,  and  not  in  the  interest  of  truth.  At  the 
time  when  the  term  was  first  introduced,  Augus- 
tine had  said  that  *'as  God,  Christ  had  no 
mother."  The  Church  of  England  now  ehmi- 
nated  the  word  from  her  formularies  as  well  as 
from  her  definition  of  the  faith.^  The  word 
which  had  abounded  in  ancient  theologies  and 
liturgies  passed  out  of  use  and  was  well-nigh 
forgotten,  except  as  a  theological  curiosity  or 
historical  reference.  As  such  Coleridge  en- 
countered it  and  made  this  comment :  — 


^  Neither  Newman,  in  Tract  xc,  nor  Pusey,  in  his  defence  of  it 
("The  Articles  treated  on  in  Tract  xc,"  London,  1 841),  has  alluded 
to  the  rejection  of  ^eoro/cos.  Both  overlook  the  fact,  in  their 
explanation  of  Article  xxi,  that  the  decisions  of  the  Third  and 
Fourth  General  Councils  have  been  curtailed  and  in  part  cast 
aside.  But  that  these  Councils  have  erred,  even  in  things  pertain- 
ing to  God,  does  not  and  ought  not  to  destroy  the  veneration  in 
which  General  Councils  are  to  be  held.  Cranmer  has  given  the 
true  judgment  in  the  "  Reformatio  Legum,"  "  de  Summa  Trinitate," 
c.  14,  where,  after  stating  that  we  pay  the  greatest  deference  to  the 
oecumenical  councils  (ingentem  honorem  libenter  deferimus),  he 
proceeds :  Quibus  tamen  non  aliter  fidem  nostram  obligandam  esse 
censemus,  nisi  quatenus  ex  Scripturis  Sanctis  confirmari  possint. 
Nam  concilia  non  nulla  interdum  errasse,  et  contraria  inter  sese 
definivisse,  partem  in  actionibus  juris,  partim  etiam  in  fide,  mani- 
festum  est."  Cf.  Hardwick,  "His.  of  the  Articles,"  p.  409.  The 
same  qualification  is  found  in  the  Canon  of  1871,  —  the  doctrine 
must  be  gathered  from  Scripture.  Cf.  Cardwell,  Synodaliaj  i. 
p.  126. 


i68  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

*'Nestorius  was  perfectly  justifiable  in  his 
rejection  of  the  epithet  deoroKo^,  as  ap- 
plied to  the  mother  of  Jesus.  The  Church 
was  even  then  only  too  ripe  for  the  idola- 
trous hyper-dulia  of  the  Virgin.  .  .  .  For 
an  epithet,  which  conceals  half  of  a  truth, 
the  power  and  concerningness  of  which 
relatively  to  our  redemption  by  Christ 
depends  on  our  knowledge  of  the  whole,  is 
a  deceptive,  and  dangerously  deceptive, 
epithet."     (Op.  cit.,  v,  p.  60.) 

In  this  connection  there  was  one  obvious 
passage  which  occurs  often  in  the  writings  of 
the  Reformers, — the  words  of  Jesus,  when  they 
told  Him  that  His  mother  and  His  brethren 
stood  without  desiring  to  speak  to  Him.  *'And 
He  said  unto  them.  Who  is  my  mother  and  who 
are  my  brethren  ?  He  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my 
mother  and  sister  and  brother." 

If  it  be  said,  as  of  late  it  has  been  said,  that 
only  the  Universal  Church,  united  in  all  its 
branches,  can  speak  with  authority  in  defining 
Christian  doctrine,  the  answer  is  that  the  Church 
of  England  has  spoken  for  herself,  and  without 
consultation  with  the  rest  of  Christendom,  nay, 
even,   in  opposition  to  it.     The   fact  remains, 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     169 

however  it  may  fare  with  the  theory.  And 
surely  the  Church  of  England  had  as  much 
right  to  reject  a  dogmatic  statement  of  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon  as  the  Pope  had  to  reject 
its  twenty-eighth  canon,  which  limited  his  ec- 
clesiastical prerogative,  as  the  former  limited 
theological  freedom  and  advance.  And  the 
National  Church  of  England  was  standing  on 
the  same  ground,  when  in  the  Articles  it  re- 
defined the  faith,  as  was  the  group  of  National 
Churches  assembled  at  Trent,  when  they  put 
forth  their  dogmatic  decisions.  In  the  sixteenth 
century  this  principle  was  recognized  and  ac- 
cepted as  valid.^ 

The  word  theotokos  may  now  be  dismissed.  It 
has  been  dwelt  upon,  because  it  was  the  hinge 
of  the  controversy  in  the  fifth  century,  when  the 
ancient  Church  was  making  its  departure  from 
the  earlier  conception  of  the  Incarnation ;  when 
it  was  renouncing  the  individuality  of  the  human 
nature  of  Christ,  and  attributing  to  His  Mother 

^  Also  the  Eastern  or  Greek  Church  put  forth  in  1643  '^^ 
"Orthodox  Confession,"  without  consultation  with  other  branches 
of  the  Church  Universal.  Deep  and  important  as  the  differences 
are  between  the  historic  branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  there 
does  run  beneath  them  all  a  common  element,  sometimes  known 
as  "undenominational  Christianity,"  which  means,  in  other  words, 
devotion  to  the  person  of  Christ,  however  inadequately  apprehended. 
Therein  lies  the  hope  of  a  common  Christendom,  something  always 
to  be  spoken  of  with  respect  and  reverence. 


170  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

the  inheritance  of  sanctity  and  purity  which 
marked  His  human  nature,  instead  of  to  the  grace 
of  God,  or  the  action  upon  Him  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
At  the  Reformation  all  the  Protestant  churches 
alike  rejected,  without  discussion,  the  designa- 
tion of  Mary  as  the  ''Mother  of  God."  In 
England  neither  Cranmer  nor  any  of  the  Reform- 
ers attempted  to  work  out  a  theory  of  the  Incar- 
nation. It  was  not  the  English  way.  They 
were  content  with  the  freedom  gained  by  the 
excision  of  the  objectionable  phrase,  whose 
results,  as  they  had  been  manifested  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church,  were  a  better  commentary  on 
its  tendency  than  any  abstract  reasoning.  That 
they  appreciated  the  importance  of  regaining  the 
full  humanity  of  Christ  may  be  inferred  from  a 
passage  in  the  Homily  on  the  Nativity  and  also 
from  places  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
where  the  Manhood  is  associated  with  the 
Godhood  in  emphatic  manner.  Thus  in  the 
exhortation  of  the  communion  office  the  reference 
to  *'the  death  and  passion  of  our  Saviour  Christ 
both  God  and  man;''  or  in  the  Second  Article, 
''whereof  is  one  Christ,  very  God  and  very  man ;" 
or  again  in  Article  VII,  "Christ  the  only  media- 
tor between  God  and  man,  being  both  God  and 
man.'' 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  theo- 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   INCARNATION     171 

logical  views  of  the  Reformers  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  who  gave  to  the  Church  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer.  We  return  to  the  subject 
again,  for  the  purpose  of  learning  more  definitely 
the  meaning  of  those  formularies,  —  the  vows 
of  the  ordinal,  the  interpretation  of  the  creeds, 
the  ''doctrine  of  Christ,  as  Christ  hath  com- 
manded, and  as  this  Church  hath  received  the 
same,  according  to  the  commandments  of  God." 
It  might  naturally  be  objected  that  no  body 
of  men  in  any  one  age  should  have  the  authority 
to  determine  the  interpretation  of  the  doctrine 
of  this  Church  for  subsequent  ages.  But  we 
are  concerned  with  the  fact;  and  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  Reformers  did  devise  the  vows 
of  the  ordinal,  which  were  substituted  for  the 
vows  of  the  old  order.  If  the  question  of  clerical 
honesty  is  at  issue,  there  is  no  other  way  than  to 
get  back  to  the  original  purport  of  our  formula- 
ries, and  this  can  only  be  done  by  ascertaining 
the  mind  of  those  who  wrote  them.  Whether 
they  ought  to  be  in  the  Prayer  Book  or  not  is 
another  question.  They  are  there.  And  such  is 
the  subtle  force  of  the  written  word,  that  an  in- 
fluence constantly  emanates  from  the  action  of 
the  Reformers,  and  must  always  continue  to  do 
so,  no  matter  how  far  we  may  have  wandered 
from  the  original  sense.     In  a  church  constituted 


172  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

on  such  a  basis,  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation 
will  never  be  without  its  witnesses,  more  espe- 
cially as  that  spirit  meant  the  freedom  where- 
with Christ  hath  made  us  free. 

But  again,  in  further  reply  to  the  possible  ob- 
jection which  may  question  the  equity  of  tying 
a  church  to  the  standards  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, it  must  be  said  that  the  age  of  the  Refor- 
mation stands  out  in  history  with  a  singular  and 
unparalleled  preeminence.  It  was  a  great  re- 
vealing epoch  in  the  history  of  religion,  as  well  as 
of  the  human  mind,  to  be  compared  only  with 
the  age  of  the  advent  of  Christ,  or  of  that  earlier 
moment  in  history  when  the  prophets  arose  in 
Israel.  The  greatness  of  the  Reformation  age 
was  illustrated  in  the  coming  to  the  birth  of 
the  modern  nations,  when  the  freedom  of  hu- 
manity was  secured  in  its  essential  principle,  and 
the  world  entered  upon  a  new  career  of  prog- 
ress; when  for  the  first  time  a  real  and  genuine 
cathohcity  became  possible,  and  the  old  con- 
ventional catholicity,  which  hovered  around  an 
inland  sea,  gave  way  to  a  universality,  of  which 
oceans  were  the  highway  and  the  whole  area 
of  the  globe  the  theatre  of  action. 

The  greatness  of  the  age  of  the  Reformation, 
which  entitles  it  to  speak  with  authority  to 
subsequent  ages,  was  the  mighty,  all-controlling 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   INCARNATION     173 

sense  of  the  power  and  the  presence  of  God. 
In  the  power  of  that  presence,  the  humanita- 
rianism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  gave  birth 
to  institutions  and  customs,  shelters,  places  of 
refuge,  penitential  methods  with  indulgences 
annexed,  shielding  men  from  the  consciousness 
of  the  immediate  relationship  with  God, —  these 
things  grew  weak  and  God  alone  was  exalted 
in  that  day.  Hence  the  Reformers  gained  the 
supreme  confidence,  the  amazing  boldness  to 
speak,  so  that  they  did  not  need  to  take  thought 
beforehand,  for  it  was  not  so  much  they  that 
spoke,  as  the  Holy  Spirit  that  was  speaking 
through  them.  To  get  back  again  to  the  reality 
was  the  predominant  aim,  and  in  so  doing  to  get 
rid  of  all  the  lower  worships  of  Mary  and  of  the 
saints,  which  had  hidden  God  from  view.  Since 
tradition  stood  in  the  way  of  this  return,  they 
made  war  upon  tradition,  no  matter  how  long 
established  or  lofty  its  prestige.  No  human 
authority  intimidated.  No  church  was  infalli- 
ble, only  God  was  that.  To  the  Bible  they 
turned,  as  the  Word  of  God,  and  as  containing 
all  things  necessary  to  salvation.  From  the 
Bible,  they  learned  the  way  to  the  true  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation,  from  which  the  Church  of 
the  fifth  century  or  earlier  had  departed. 
And  the  true  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  re- 


174  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

quired  that  the  glory  should  be  attributed  to  God 
and  not  to  Mary.  To  Mary  as  ''the  Mother 
of  our  Saviour,"  ^  —  such  was  the  designation 
of  the  Reformers,  they  gave  becoming,  but  no 
undue,  reverence.  It  was  the  common  belief 
of  all  the  reformers  alike,  whether  in  England 
or  on  the  Continent :  — 

''We  do  not  hold  Christ  to  be  free  from  all 
taint  merely  because  He  was  born  of  a 
woman  unconnected  with  a  man,  but  be- 
cause he  was  sanctified  by  the  Spirit,  so  that 
the  generation  was  pure  and  spotless." 
(Calvin,  ''Instit.,"  ii,  c.  13.) 

The  Reformers  challenged  the  whole  mass  of 
subtle  speculation,  which  attributed  to  the 
Virgin-birth  as  such,  the  breaking  of  the  entail 
of  sin.  They  did  not  deny  the  Virgin-birth,  they 
affirmed  it  when  the  occasion  of  their  subject 
demanded.  But  their  criticism,  their  comment, 
must  have  almost  seemed  to  their  adversaries  as 
tantamount  to  denial,  for  they  made  little  or  no 
effort  to  explain  or  justify,  they  attached  for  the 
most  part  slight  importance  to  the  circumstance, 
they  put  at  times  such  an  interpretation  on  the 

^  "Mother  to  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ"  is  also  the  formula  of 
the  Homilies. 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   INCARNATION     175 

clause  in  the  Creed,  "'born  of  the  Virgin  Mary," 
as  to  make  it  seem  a  matter  of  indifferencewhether 
or  no  the  Virgin-birth  were  true.  In  the  writings 
of  Bishop  Jewell  (fi57i),  whose  Apology 
(**  Apologia  Ecclesiae  Anglicanae")  is  '*the  most 
complete  expression  of  the  distinctive  position 
of  the  English  Church,"  these  are  among  the 
comments :  — 

''The  nearness  of  mother's  blood  should 
have  profited  Christ's  mother  nothing  at  all, 
unless  she  had  more  blessedly  carried  Christ 
in  her  heart  than  in  her  body."     (''Works," 

ii,  757-) 

"Verily,  Mr.  Harding,  to  be  the  child  of 

God  is  a  great  deal  greater  grace  than  to  be 

the  Mother  of  God." 

"  Mary  was  more  blessed  or  fuller  of  grace, 

in  that  she  received  the  faith  of  Christ,  than 

in  that  she  conceived  the  flesh  of  Christ." 

(iii,  578.) 

Bishop  Latimer,  the  hero  of  the  English  Refor- 
mation, came  near  getting  into  trouble,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII,  before  the  Reformation 
had  begun,  by  his  plain  speech  about  the  Virgin 
Mary,  —  her  perpetual  virginity,  and  also  the 
virginity    in    partUy   which    he    condemned    as 


176  FREEDOM   IN   THE    CHURCH 

amounting  to  a  rejection  of  the  humanity  of 
Christ.  Since  the  days  of  Augustine,  who  from 
a  sense  of  deHcacy  and  courtesy  had  been  wilhng 
to  admit  that  Mary  was  sinless,  this  concession 
had  hardened  into  a  dogma,  which  it  was  peril- 
ous to  deny.  Bishop  Latimer  was  still  in 
bondage  to  the  unreformed  faith,  but  his  mind 
had  begun  to  move,  and  this  was  one  of  the  start- 
ing points  of  his  departure.  His  enemies  were 
vindictive  and  fierce.  He  qualified  his  language 
somewhat,  but  was  able  to  make  an  issue, 
that,  whether  or  no  Mary  ever  sinned,  like  all 
others  she  was  saved,  and  needed  to  be  saved 
by  Christ. 

*'And  to  that  [question]  'What  need  you 
to  speak  of  this  ? '  I  answered, '  Great  need : 
when  men  cannot  be  content  that  she  was  a 
creature  saved,  but  as  it  were  a  Saviouress, 
not  needing  salvation,  it  is  necessary  to  set 
her  in  her  degree  to  the  glory  of  Christ,  Crea- 
tor and  Saviour  of  all  that  be  or  shall  be 
saved.  Good  authors  have  written  that 
she  was  not  a  sinner  but  good  authors 
never  wrote  that  she  was  not  saved.  .  .  . 
There  was  difference  betwixt  her  and  Christ : 
and  I  will  give  as  little  to  her  as  I  can, 
rather  than  Christ  her  Son  and  Saviour  shall 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE    INCARNATION    177 

lack  any  parcel  of  his  glory.' "    ('*  Remains," 
p.  227.)' 

There  was  httle  incHnation  among  the  reform- 
ers to  magnify  virginity  as  a  virtue.  Monas- 
teries had  been  suppressed  throughout  the  king- 
dom, and  monks  and  nuns  had  been  turned 
adrift.  The  state  was  consoHdating  itself  on  the 
basis  of  the  family,  as  the  sacred  ultimate  foun- 
dation of  national  prosperity.  On  this  point  the 
Reformers  spoke,  somewhat  in  the  vein  of  the 
early  fathers  before  monasticism  arose.  Among 
them  was  Becon,  an  influential  writer,  chaplain 
to  Archbishop  Cranmer,  and  a  canon  of  Canter- 
bury. He  escaped  the  martyrdom  reserved  for 
Ridley,  Latimer,  Cranmer,  and  others,  but  he 
suffered  much  for  his  adherence  to  the  Refor- 
mation, and  in  the  language  of  the  time  was  **a 
man  mightily  tossed  about."  In  his  treatise  on 
*'The  Demands  of  Holy  Scripture/'  is  given  this 
question  and  answer:  — 

''What  is  a  Virgin  ?  In  Scripture  it  signi- 
fies any  honest,  faithful  woman;  or  the 
spouse  of  Christ.     Which  spouse  is  either 

^  Latimer  may  have  been  overawed  by  the  fierceness  of  his 
opponents.  VV^hat  he  really  thought  and  would  have  said,  but 
refrained  from  saying,  was  accomplished  in  Article  XV,  entitled 
0/  Christ  alone  without  sin. 


178  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

any  soul  believing  in  Christ,  and  living 
honestly  according  to  His  word ;  or  else  the 
whole  congregation  and  Church  of  the  faith- 
ful." ' 

In  their  comment  on  the  clause  '*Born  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,"  the  Reformers  were  to  a  certain 
extent  influenced  by  the  necessity  of  opposition  to 
the  mystic  utterances  of  Anabaptists,  as  Luther 
had  also  been  roused  by  the  teaching  of  the 
Zwickau  prophets.  It  was  the  opinion  of  Joan 
of  Kent,  or  Joan  Bocher,  that  **our  blessed 
Saviour  did  not  take  His  body  from  the  Virgin 
Mary,  but  passed  through  her  as  hght  through 
glass. '*  The  burning  of  this  unfortunate  woman 
for  heresy  (1550)  is  a  blot  upon  the  Reformation, 
to  be  compared  with  the  burning  of  Servetus 
by  Calvin,  or  the  treatment  accorded  to  Anne 
Hutchinson  by  the  New  England  Puritans.  She 
was  a  woman  of  an  ultra-spiritual  temperament, 
somewhat  hke  the  Quakers  in  her  tendency  to 
emphasize  spirit  in  opposition  to  letter.  When 
she  was  questioned  by  the  Reformers,  many  of 
whom  visited  her  in  prison,  in  order  to  move  her 
from  the  error  of  her  ways,  she  answered,  '*I 
deny  not   that   Christ   is   Mary's   seed,   or  the 

^  "  British  Reformers,"  Becon,  p.  423,  London,  Religious  Tract 
Society. 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     179 

woman's  seed ;  but  Mary  had  two  seeds,  one 
seed  of  her  faith  and  another  seed  of  her  flesh 
and  in  her  body.  There  is  a  natural  and  cor- 
poral seed  and  there  is  a  spiritual  and  an  heav- 
enly seed,  as  we  may  gather  of  St.  John,  where  he 
saith,  *The  seed  of  God  remaineth  in  him,  and 
he  cannot  sin.'  And  Christ  is  her  seed ;  but  he  is 
become  man  of  the  seed  of  her  faith  and  belief; 
of  spiritual,  not  of  natural  seed;  for  her  seed 
and  flesh  was  sinful,  as  the  flesh  and  seed  of 
others."^ 

That  the  Reformers  were  a  little  confused  by 
this  utterance  is  apparent,  for  it  had  a  double 
tendency,  and  left  them  as  it  were  in  a  strait 
betwixt  two.  But  it  had  the  effect  of  leading 
them  to  assert  more  strongly  the  actual  birth  of 
Christ  from  Mary,  and  it  afforded  another  argu- 
ment against  the  virginity  in  partu  which  was 
the  popular  belief.  '*How  can  we  warrant 
Christ's  humanity,"  writes  Hutchinson,  ''if  we 
make  it  uncertain  whence  he  took  it  .f*  .  .  .  If 
he  had  any  humanity  or  manhood,  he  had  it 
undoubtedly  of  his  mother."  It  is  not  necessary 
to  cite  the  opinion  expressed  alike  by  the  Re- 
formers on  this  point.  Latimer  spoke  for  them, 
in  resisting  the  opinion  that  the  body  of  Christ 
was   fantastical,   but    he    associated   with    the 

^Hutchinson,  "Works,"  Parker  Soc.  ed.,  146. 


i8o  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

teaching  of  Joan,  the  current  ecclesiastical  tra- 
dition, as  having  a  like  fantastical  tendency. 
Of  the  doctrine  known  as  the  semper  virginitas 
he  says:  *'They  that  will  go  about  and  say  that 
she  brought  Him  forth  without  pain,  not  after 
the  manner  of  other  women,  they  seem  to  do 
more  hurt  than  good :  for  so  we  might  come  in 
doubt  whether  He  had  a  very  body  or  not."^ 
The  situation  of  the  Reformers  almost  repro- 
duces that  of  the  moment  when  the  Creed  took 
its  rise,  when  the  Gnostics  were  maintaining  that 
Christ  was  not  actually  born,  but  passed  from 
heaven  through  the  body  of  His  mother  in  a 
supernatural  way.  Against  this  the  Creed  was 
originally  a  protest  —  He  was  ''born  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary." 

The  sensitiveness  now  felt  about  the  Virgin- 
birth  has  its  roots  in  a  divergence  regarding  the 
Incarnation.  In  the  Anglican  Church  there 
has  been  developed,  since  the  Reformation,  a 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  which,  while  it 
accepts  the  Virgin-birth  and  recognizes  the 
miraculous  element  in  the  entrance  of  Christ 
into  the  world,  as  well  as  in  His  departure  from 
it,  yet  does  not  regard  it  as  an  essential  condi- 
tion for  the  incarnation  of  God  in  Christ  or 
dogmatically  determine  that    God    could    have 

1  "Works,"  ii,  115. 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     i8i 

become  incarnate  in  no  other  way.  It  places 
the  stress  not  upon  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy, 
but  upon  the  character  and  teaching  of  the 
mature  Christ,  upon  His  life  and  passion. 
For  this  view  of  the  Incarnation,  the  Reformers 
prepared  the  way,  by  removing  the  obstacles 
which  stood  as  a  hinderance  to  its  assertion 
and  had  so  stood  for  ages.  They  laid  the 
foundation  for  a  more  spiritual  and  effective 
conviction  of  the  truth  that  God  was  in  Christ 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  but  for  the 
fuller  presentation  of  the  truth  they  had  neither 
leisure  nor  opportunity.  The  generations  that 
followed  were  preoccupied  with  other  issues, — 
the  conflict  with  Puritanism  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  Deistic  movement  in  the  eighteenth. 
Not  until  the  last  century  did  there  come  the 
full  moment  when  this  central  doctrine  of  the 
Christian  faith  could  be  adequately  presented, 
as  in  the  writings  of  Maurice,  Hutton,  Kingsley, 
Robertson,  and  the  American  Bushnell;  and 
to  this  list  may  be  added  the  name  of  Phillips 
Brooks,  who  was  at  the  height  of  his  power 
when  elucidating  the  life  and  teaching  and 
character  of  Christ.  Never  before  has  the 
meaning  of  the  Incarnation  been  so  powerfully 
illumined  or  with  such  triumphant  success. 
But  contemporaneously  with  this  movement 


i82  FREEDOM   IN  THE   CHURCH 

in  religious  thought,  which  made  the  Incar- 
nation the  central  truth  of  the  Christian  faith, 
and  called  attention  to  the  life  of  Christ 
portrayed  in  the  Gospels,  as  the  evidence  of 
His  divine  Sonship,  there  came  also  a  revival 
of  the  pre-reformation  doctrine  of  the  Incar- 
nation, which  not  only  made  the  Virgin-birth 
so  essential  that  the  Incarnation  could  not  be 
conceived  or  held  without  it,  but  sought  to 
restore  the  terminology  associated  with  the 
worship  of  the  Virgin,  which  the  Church  of 
England  has  rejected.  The  issues  and  fortunes 
of  theology  are  therefore  involved  at  this  point 
in  the  Creed,  —  "Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary." 
The  insistence  on  the  mediaeval  view  of  the 
Incarnation,  which,  as  has  been  shown,  goes 
back  in  its  origin  to  the  fifth  century,  tends  to 
beget  a  reactionary  mood  which  leads  to  the 
denial  of  the  Virgin-birth  altogether.  At  this 
point  the  theological  motive  which  springs  from 
repugnance  to  the  restoration  of  the  pre- 
reformation  theology  may  combine  with  another 
motive,  derived  from  modern  science,  —  the 
assertion  of  the  uniformity  of  law  and  the  im- 
possibility of  the  miracle.  The  increased  at- 
tention given  to  the  study  of  the  New  Testament 
has  also  disclosed  hitherto  unsuspected  difficul- 
ties  connected  with  the  Virgin-birth,  which  of 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE    INCARNATION      183 

themselves    would    have    begotten    doubt,    had 
there  been  no  other  cause. 

The  modern  sensitiveness  on  the  subject  of  the 
Virgin-birth  goes  back  to  Coleridge  (f  1834), 
the  most  influential  personage,  for  Enghsh 
thought,  whether  in  literature,  philosophy,  or 
theology,  that  the  nineteenth  century  produced. 
Neither  Bushnell,  nor  Maurice,  nor  Robertson 
could  have  done  their  work  without  him;  all 
acknowledged  their  indebtedness  to  him.  Cole- 
ridge had  turned  his  attention  in  his  theological 
reading  to  the  writers  of  the  English  Church  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  as  having  greater  force 
and  attraction  than  those  of  later  generations, 
of  whom  the  world  was  then  getting  tired.  He 
went  back  therefore  as  a  preparation  for  a  for- 
ward step.  He  studied  writers,  like  Hooker, 
Field,  Donne,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Richard  Baxter, 
Leighton,  Bull,  and  many  others,  especially 
those  who  had  contributed  anything  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  or  the  Incarnation.  He 
fastened  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  the 
primary,  fundamental,  and  all-inclusive  doctrine 
of  the  Christian  Church.  He  embraced  with 
enthusiasm  the  church  doctrine  as  set  forth  at 
the  Council  of  Nicaea.  He  was  not  only  fa- 
miliar with  the  nomenclature,  but  he  rather 
gloried  in  its  exact  use  to  express  the  fact  of  the 


i84  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

Incarnation  —  how  the  Logos,  the  Eternal  Son, 
the  second  person  in  the  Godhead,  came  down 
and  was  made  man,  how  the  Word  became 
flesh  and  dwelt  amongst  us. 

But  as  Coleridge  studied  these  writers  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  who  in  their  aversion  to 
Puritanism  had  resorted  to  the  teachers  of  the 
ancient  church  for  relief,  he  was  led  to  ani- 
madvert upon  many  of  their  opinions  as  incom- 
patible with  Scripture,  with  reason,  or  with  the 
dictates  of  true  religion.  Dr.  Donne,  the  dean 
of  St.  Paul's,  and  a  friend  of  George  Herbert, 
himself  also  a  poet  and  a  man  of  fanciful,  im- 
aginative turn  of  mind,  who  revelled  in  quaint 
conceits,  was  pressing  a  view  of  the  Incarnation 
and  its  connection  with  the  Virgin-birth,  against 
which  Coleridge  made  his  protest:  — 

"The  fear  of  giving  offence,  especially  to 
good  men  of  whose  faith  in  all  essential  points 
we  are  partakers,  may  reasonably  induce  us 
to  be  slow  and  cautious  in  making  up  our 
minds  finally  on  a  religious  question,  and 
may,  and  ought  to,  influence  us  to  submit 
our  conviction  to  repeated  revisals  and  re- 
hearings.  But  there  may  arrive  a  time  of 
such  perfect  clearness  of  view  respecting 
the   particular    point,  as    to  supersede  all 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   INCARNATION     185 

fear  of  man  by  the  higher  duty  of  declaring 
the  whole  truth  in  Jesus.  Therefore,  hav- 
ing now  passed  six-sevenths  of  the  ordinary 
period  allotted  to  human  life  —  resting  my 
whole  and  sole  hope  of  salvation  and  immor- 
tality on  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  the 
redemption  by  His  cross  and  passion,  and 
holding  the  doctrine  of  the  Triune  God  as 
the  very  ground  and  foundation  of  the 
Gospel  faith  —  I  feel  myself  enforced  by 
conscience  to  declare  and  avow,  that,  in  my 
deliberate  judgment,  the  'Christopaedia' 
prefixed  to  the  third  Gospel,  and  incorpo- 
rated with  the  first,  but  according  to  my 
belief  the  latest  of  the  four,  was  unknown 
to,  or  not  recognized  by,  the  Apostles  Paul 
and  John ;  and  that  instead  of  supporting 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Filial 
Godhead  of  the  Incarnate  Word,  as  set 
forth  by  John  i.  i,  and  by  Paul,  it,  if  not 
altogether  irreconcilable  with  this  faith, 
doth  yet  greatly  weaken  and  bedim  its  evi- 
dence ;  and  that  by  the  too  palpable  contra- 
dictions between  the  narrative  in  the  first 
Gospel  and  that  in  the  third,  it  has  been  a 
fruitful  magazine  of  doubts  respecting  the 
historic  character  of  the  Gospels  themselves. 
I  have  read  most  of  the  criticisms  on  this 


i86  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

text,  and  my  impression  is,  that  no  learned 
Jew  can  be  expected  to  receive  the  common 
interpretation  as  the  true  primary  sense 
of  the  words.  The  severely  literal  Aquila 
renders  the  Hebrew  word  veavL<;  a  young 
woman,  girl,  maiden.  But  were  it  asked  of 
me :  Do  you  then  believe  our  Lord  to  have 
been  the  son  of  Mary  by  Joseph  ?  I  reply: 
It  is  a  point  of  religion  with  me  to  have  no 
belief  one  way  or  the  other.  I  am  in  this 
way  Hke  St.  Paul,  more  than  content  not 
to  know  Christ  Himself  /cam  o-dpKa.  It  is 
enough  for  me  to  know  that  the  Son  of 
God  became  flesh,  crap^  eyeuero  yevofxevo^  e/c 
yvvaiKo<;y  and  more  than  that,  it  appears 
to  me,  was  unknown  to  the  Apostles, 
or,  if  known,  not  taught  by  them  as  apper- 
taining to  a  saving  faith  in  Christ.  — 
October,  1831."^ 

^  "Works,"  Shedd's  ed.,  v.  79.  Commenting  on  one  of 
Donne's  sermons,  where  he  is  dealing  with  the  Virginity  in  partu, 
which  is  the  authorized  interpretation  by  the  Greek  and  Roman 
churches  of  the  clause,  "  Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,"  Coleridge 
remarked :  "  I  think  I  might  safely  put  the  question  to  any 
serious,  spiritual-minded  Christian :  what  one  inference  tending 
to  edification,  in  the  discipline  of  will,  mind,  or  affections,  he  can 
draw  from  the  speculations  of  the  last  two  or  three  pages  of  this 
sermon,  respecting  Mary's  pregnancy  and  parturition  ?  Can  — 
I  write  it  emphatically  —  can  such  points  appertain  to  our  faith 
as  Christians,  which  every  parent  would  decline  speaking  of 
before  a  family,  and  which,  if  the  questions  were  propounded  by 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     187 

Dr.  Donne  thought  it  was  the  wish  of  Christ 
that  the  Virgin-birth  should  not  be  taught  or 
mentioned. 

"Very  ingenious,"  says  Coleridge,  '*but 
likewise  very  presumptuous,  this  arbitrary 
attribution  of  St.  Paul's  silence  and  pre- 
sumable ignorance  of  the  virginity  of  Mary, 
to  Christ's  own  determination  to  have  the 
fact  passed  over."  The  further  expression 
of  Coleridge's  thought  is  given  in  the  fol- 
lowing citations  from  his  writings : 

'*0,  what  a  tangle  of  impure  whimsies 
has  this  notion  of  an  immaculate  concep- 
tion, an  Ebionite  tradition,  as  I  think, 
brought  into  the  Christian  Church.  I  have 
sometimes  suspected  that  the  Apostle  John 
had  a  particular  view  to  this  point  in  the  first 
half  of  the  first  chapter  of  his  Gospel  .  .  . 
and  met  it  by  the  true  solution,  the  Eternal 
Fihation  of  the  Word."     (p.  276.) 

''Non  nude  hominem  —  not  a  mere  man 
do  I  hold  Jesus  to  have  been  and  to  be;  but 
a  perfect  man,  and  by  personal  union  with 
the  Logos,  perfect  God.     That  His  having 

another  in  the  presence  of  my  daughter,  aye,  or  even  of  my,  no 
less  in  mind  and  imagination,  innocent  v/ife,  I  should  resent  as 
as  an  indecency?"     (p.  80.) 


i88  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

an  earthly  father  might  be  requisite  to  His 
being  a  perfect  man,  I  can  readily  suppose ; 
but  why  the  having  an  earthly  father  should 
be  more  incompatible  with  His  perfect 
divinity,  than  His  having  an  earthly  mother, 
I  cannot  comprehend.  All  that  John  and 
Paul  believed,  God  forbid  that  I  should 
not."     (P.  436.) 

**It  may  deserve  attention  from  the  zealous 
advocates  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Evan- 
gehum  Infantiae,  prefixed  to  the  Gospel  of 
Luke  and  concorporated  with  the  canonical 
revision  of  Matthew's  —  whether  the  im- 
maculate conception  of  the  Virgin  is  not  a 
legitimate  corollary  of  the  miraculous  con- 
ception of  our  Lord,  so  far  at  least  that  the 
same  reason,  that  rendered  it  impossible 
for  Him  to  have  an  immaculate  father,  is 
equally  cogent  for  the  necessity  of  an 
immaculate  mother. 

*'  But  alas  !  in  subjects  of  this  sort,  we  can 
only  stave  off  the  difficulty.  It  is  a  point  in 
a  circle,  on  whichever  side  we  remove  from 
it,  we  are  sure  to  come  round  to  it  again. 
So  here,  either  the  Virgin's  ancestors,  pater- 
nal and  maternal,  from  Adam  and  Eve  down- 
ward, were  all  sinless ;  or  her  immediate 
father  and  mother  were  not  so,  but  like  the 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   INCARNATION    189 

rest  of  mankind  involved  in  original  sin. 
But  if  a  sin-stained  father  and  mother  could 
produce  an  immaculate  offspring  in  one 
instance,  why  not  in  the  other  ?  That  the 
union  of  the  Divine  Word  with  the  seed 
and  nature  of  man  should  preclude  the  con- 
tagion of  sin  in  the  Holy  Child,  is  as  much 
to  be  expected  on  the  one  supposition  of  our 
Lord's  birth  as  on  the  other.  So  far  from 
being  a  greater  miracle,  it  seems  so  neces- 
sarily involved  in  the  miracle  of  the  Incarna- 
tion, common  to  both,  as  scarcely  to  be 
worthy  of  being  called  an  additional  miracle. 
The  accidental  circumstance,  that  the  Uni- 
tarian party,  most  palpably  to  their  own  dis- 
advantage, reject  or  question  the  chapter  in 
question,  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  horror  with 
which  our  orthodox  divines  recoil  from  every 
free  investigation  of  the  point."     (P.  532.) 

It  was  one  of  the  ecclesiastical  events  in  the 
last  century,  which  amazed  all  thoughtful  men, 
when  the  Roman  Church,  under  the  lead  of 
Pope  Pius  IX,  proclaimed  the  new  dogma  of  the 
immaculate  conception  of  Mary.  It  was  to  be 
sure  the  necessary  and  logical  sequence  of  the 
belief  that  the  birth  from  a  virgin  was  essential 
to  the  Incarnation;    that  the  Incarnation  could 


190  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

not  have  been  otherwise  in  the  nature  of  the 
case.  God  and  Mary,  so  ran  the  argument, 
were  the  parents  of  Jesus,  the  one  furnishing  the 
divinity,  the  other  the  humanity.  But  since  the 
humanity  of  Jesus  was  exceptional  and  divine, 
and  the  flesh  of  His  body  sacred  and  hfe-giving, 
Mary  must  herself  have  been  an  exceptional 
being,  a  quasi  divine  person,  sinless,  and  in  order 
to  sinlessness  immaculately  conceived.  But  to 
glorify  Mary  was  also  an  end  in  the  mind  of 
Pius  IX.  In  the  famous  painting  in  the  Vati- 
can, executed  at  the  order  of  the  Pope  to  com- 
memorate the  new  dogma,  Mary  has  taken  her 
place  in  the  sacred  Trinity,  along  with  the  Eter- 
nal Father  and  the  Eternal  Son,  as  having  an 
equal  share  with  Deity,  in  bringing  to  the  world 
the  blessing  of  the  Incarnation. 

The  nineteenth  century  was,  by  common  con- 
sent, the  most  enlightened,  the  most  progressive, 
in  the  world's  history.  No  other  century  could 
compare  with  it  for  great  discoveries,  for  powerful 
illumination  in  every  department  of  life,  in 
science,  in  literature,  in  art,  in  philosophy.  How, 
then,  could  so  retrogressive  a  step  have  been 
taken,  which  outdid  the  dreams  in  the  Middle 
Ages  ?  Among  those  who  wondered  was  the 
late  Frederick  Robertson,  who  was  preaching  in 
the  fifties,  and  for  whom  the  new  dogma  fur- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    INCARNATION     191 

nished  the  subject  of  two  of  his  most  notable 
sermons,  '*The  Glory  of  the  Virgin  Mother"  and 
*^The  Glory  of  the  Divine  Son." 

**How  comes  it  to  pass,"  he  asks,  "after 
three  hundred  years  of  Reformation,  we  find 
Virgin-worship  restoring  itself  again  in  this 
reformed  England,  where,  least  of  all  coun- 
tries, we  should  expect  it,  and  where  the  re- 
membrance of  Romish  persecution  might 
have  seemed  to  make  its  return  impossible  ? 
...  It  is  the  doctrine  to  which  the  con- 
verts to  Romanism  cHng  most  tenaciously." 

Robertson  had  felt  the  force  of  that  severe 
reaction  through  which  the  last  century  passed, 
when  humanity,  as  it  were,  rose  up  in  its  might 
to  dethrone  the  deity.  But  he  escaped  its  evil 
effects,  and  his  answer  to  the  question  is  true. 
Mary  worship  is  ''idolatry,  in  modern  Romanism, 
a  pernicious  and  most  defihng  one,"  where  the 
worship  of  the  mother  overshadows  the  worship 
of  the  Son,  and  the  love  given  to  her  is  so  much 
taken  from  Him.  The  remedy  for  it  is  to  get 
back  to  the  full  humanity  of  Jesus.  Because 
the  humanity  of  Christ  had  been  lost  sight  of 
or  obscured,  through  inferences  from  a  wrong 
conception  of  the   Incarnation,   the  world  had 


192  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

turned  to  Mary  as  a  substitute.  "  The  true 
glory  of  the  Virgin  was  the  glory  of  true  woman- 
hood, .  .  .  not  immaculate  origin,  nor  immacu- 
late life,  nor  exaltation  to  divine  honors  .  .  . 
the  glory  of  motherhood;  .  .  .  not  the  Queen 
of  Heaven,  but  something  nobler  still,  a  crea- 
ture content  to  be  what  God  had  made  her." 
C* Sermons,"  ii,  277  ff.,  first  Am.  ed.) 

Robertson's  prophetic  call  to  return  to  the 
humanity  of  Christ,  as  the  way  to  overcome  false 
worship,  has  been  fulfilled,  but  in  larger  and 
different  measure  than  he  anticipated.  The 
ecclesiastical  reaction,  which  was  moving  Rome- 
ward,  was  checked  by  the  rise  of  Biblical  and 
historical  criticism,  —  by  the  ''higher  criticism" 
of  the  New  Testament  in  particular,  which  has 
brought  back  to  the  world  the  historical  Christ, 
till  at  last  we  are  beginning  to  know  what  man- 
ner of  man  He  was.  Through  the  contempla- 
tion of  His  personality.  He  now  begins  to  stand 
revealed  to  the  modern  world,  as  never  before, 
in  all  the  history  of  the  Church,  was  He  seen  or 
known.  No  greater  boon  was  ever  given  to  the 
world  than  this.  But  as  we  study  the  records 
of  His  life,  the  mystery  of  His  person  also  grows. 
Into  the  depths  of  His  consciousness,  no  one  can 
ever  hope  fully  to  penetrate.  But  at  least  Christ 
realizes  to  faith  all  that  the  religious  imagination 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    INCARNATION     193 

could  ask  for,  if  ''God  was  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself"  (2  Cor.  v.  19).  We 
can  understand  how  St.  Paul,  from  his  knowledge 
of  Christ  after  the  flesh,  should  have  been  led 
to  say,  '^Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted 
Htm,  and  given  Him  a  name  which  is  above 
every  name,  that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  should  how,  of  things  in  heaven  and  things 
in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that 
every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
Lord  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father  J' 


CHAPTER   VII 

MODERN     SENSITIVENESS     ABOUT     THE     VIRGIN- 
BIRTH 

It  is  to  have  been  devoutly  wished  that  the 
present  controversy  about  the  Virgin-birth  had 
not  arisen  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  Church. 
Many  of  those  who  feel  keenly  the  modern  diffi- 
culties would  have  preferred  to  allow  objections 
to  slumber,  in  the  conviction  that  no  serious  issue 
was  involved.  There  will  always  be  a  large 
number  brought  up  from  infancy  within  the 
Church,  who  will  continue  to  think  and  to  talk 
in  the  old  way,  however  the  critical  questions 
regarding  the  fact  may  be  determined.  There 
are  many  subjects  in  the  field  of  religion  or 
theology  where  the  mind,  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties, remain  willingly  in  suspense,  and  in  such 
an  attitude  may  lie  prudence  and  the  highest 
wisdom,  even  the  possibility  of  the  larger 
growth.  There  is  much  to  be  said  in  behalf 
of  the  Virgin-birth  which  should  moderate  or 
conciliate  those  who  oppose  it.  The  first  man, 
who  was  of  the  earth    earthy,   came  into  the 

194 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  195 

world,  according  to  the  faith  of  ancient  peoples, 
in  some  supernatural  way  by  a  special  divine 
creative  act.  The  conception  of  man's  descent 
after  the  modern  evolutionary  hypothesis  will 
never  quite  destroy  the  beautiful  vision,  as  it  has 
been  represented  in  art  by  Michael  Angelo,  of 
the  first  man  in  his  first  act  after  the  creation, 
touching  with  his  hand  the  hand  of  God.  Poetry 
and  art  are  intimately  associated  with  religion. 
The  primary  religious  question  is,  not  whether  a 
certain  doctrine  is  true,  for  we  may  have  no 
canons  of  determining  truth ;  but,  what  does  it 
mean,  —  a  question  we  can  always  answer.  If 
the  appearance  of  the  first  rnan  is  more  truly 
represented  to  the  religious  imagination,  as 
proceeding  forth  from  the  Divine  will,  after 
special  deliberation  in  the  councils  of  heaven, 
much  more  must  the  second  man,  who  is  the  Lord 
from  heaven,  have  entered  upon  the  scene  of 
His  task  on  earth  in  some  still  more  special  and 
supernatural  way.  Such  is,  and  is  likely  to 
remain,  the  working  of  the  religious  instinct  as 
it  seeks  to  reproduce  the  actual  fact,  to  cover  with 
a  delicate  veil  the  material  process,  to  see  only 
the  spiritual,  that  which  transcends  the  earthly 
and  transfigures  it.  It  is  the  very  nature  of 
religion  that  it  tends  to  cultivate  good  taste,  as 
well  as  a  right  heart  and  right  living.     The  dig- 


196  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

nity  of  the  situation  demands  dignity  in  the 
recognition.  ''It  was  becoming"  is  a  response 
that  can  justify  behef.  We  can  understand 
how,  without  controversy,  Augustine  should  in 
summary  fashion  announce  that  the  question 
was  closed,  in  regard  to  the  mother  of  our  Lord. 
Out  of  respect  to  Christ,  as  he  said,  let  there  be 
no  admission  in  her  case  of  actual  sin.  Even 
Martin  Luther,  who  had  the  clearest  anticipation 
of  the  modern  view  of  the  Incarnation  after 
ages  which  had  groaned  in  ignorance  of  the  full 
truth,  even  Luther  could  not  escape  from  the  en- 
vironment of  the  religious  imagination,  where 
poetry  and  art,  and  refined  religious  sensibility, 
played  about  the  person  of  Mary.^  The  fol- 
lowing exalted  passage  breathes  the  incense  of 
the  religious  spirit :  — 

''Behold  thus  did  Christ  take  to  Himself 
from  us  our  birth  and  insert  it  unto  His  birth, 
and  give  in  His  own,  in  order  that  by  it,  we 
may  become  pure  and  new,  as  though  it 
were  our  own.  Every  Christian,  therefore, 
may  exult  and  boast  in  the  birth  of  Christ, 

*  Cf.  a  very  interesting  passage  in  Dorner,  "  Person  of  Christ," 
Div.  ii,  vol.  ii,  p.  91  (Eng.  tr.),  where  the  thought  of  Luther  about 
Mary  is  given.  But  he  also  maintained,  says  Dorner,  that  Christ 
took  upon  Him  our  fallen  nature.  "The  roots  of  the  idea  of  a  puri- 
fication of  Mary  from  original  sin  were  thus  cut  away,"  etc. 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  197 

just  as  though  he  himself  had  been  physically 
born  of  Mary  like  Christ.  Whoso  doth  not 
beheve  or  doubteth  this,  is  no  Christian. 
This  is  the  sense  of  Isaiah  ix.  6 :  ''Unto  us  a 
Child  is  born,  unto  us  a  Son  is  given."  Us, 
us,  to  us  it  is  born,  to  us  it  is  given.  There- 
fore see  thou  that  thy  delight  in  the  Gospels 
is  derived  not  solely  from  the  history  itself; 
for  it  exists  not  long:  but  make  thou  His 
birth  thine  ovv^n;  exchange  with  Christ,  so 
that  thou  mayest  get  quit  of  thy  birth  and 
appropriate  His.  This  takes  place  when 
thou  believest.  Then  wilt  thou  of  a  cer- 
tainty lie  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
and  be  her  dear  child."  ^ 

It  is  a  generalization  from  our  knowledge  of 
history  that  all  its  greater  epochs  and  moments 
of  revelation  are  represented  as  ushered  in  by  the 
miracle,  or  by  an  opening  of  the  heavens  which 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  a  higher,  more  blessed  world 
than  that  we  see.  At  the  creation  the  morning 
stars  sang  together  and  the  sons  of  God  shouted 
aloud  for  joy.  When  prophecy  was  born,  there 
came  first  as  its  heralds  the  prophets  who  were 
greater  in  deed  than  in  word :  Elijah  and  Elisha, 
who  moved  in  an  atmosphere  of  the  miraculous, 

^  Dorner,  op.  cit.,  p.  105. 


198  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

a  most  unusual  feature  of  Jewish  history.  Before 
the  inspired  Word  came  the  supernatural  act, 
and  the  way  was  prepared  for  the  prophets  with 
whom  God  talked.  That  the  Virgin-birth  should 
form  one  of  the  prologues  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  was  inevitable,  and  its  grandeur  is  unsur- 
passed, not  equalled,  by  the  glories  of  the  first 
creation.  The  song  of  the  angels,  the  heavenly 
message  of  good-will  to  men,  go  with  the  ac- 
count of  the  Annunciation  and  they  constitute 
an  adequate  setting  of  the  event  which  redeems 
the  world.  Once  more  it  was  to  happen  that 
an  event  would  take  place  calling  for  a  voice 
from  heaven,  as  when  peace  came  to  the  perse- 
cuted Church  and  the  triumph  over  the  old  world 
of  force  and  sense;  when  Constantine,  it  may 
have  been  on  Monte  Mario,  overlooking  the 
Eternal  City  on  the  eve  of  the  decisive  battle  of 
the  Milvian  Bridge,  heard  the  words  in  a  vision, 
**By  this  sign  conquer." 

The  world  will  cherish  these  things,  scholars 
and  critics  no  less  than  the  purely  religious 
mind,  if  only  they  be  not  turned  into  the  form 
of  dogma  to  be  accepted  on  the  authority  of 
the  Christian  Church,  as  an  infallible  guide  to 
religious  truth.  It  is  this  tendency  to  dogma- 
tize about  the  Virgin-birth,  and  to  make  it 
essential  to  the  Incarnation,  or  as  if  a  belief 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  199 

necessary  to  salvation,  which  in  turn  begets  a 
reaction,  tempting  men  to  become  ''martyrs  of 
disgust,"  to  deny  and  reject  as  untrue  the 
external  incident,  whose  misinterpretation  it  is 
and  not  the  incident  itself,  which  is  out  of 
harmony  with  Scripture  and  with  the  revelation 
of  modern  life. 

It  is  a  relief,  then,  and  it  brings  freedom,  to 
turn  to  Scripture  as  authority,  and  not  to  the 
tradition  of  the  Church  as  an  infallible  guide, 
in  matters  of  faith.  For  nowhere  have  we  been 
taught  in  Scripture  or  in  our  formularies  that 
the  Christian  Church  is  such  a  guide.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  declared  in  the  Articles  that 
the  churches  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  and  Alex- 
andria have  erred,  and  that  the  Church  of 
Rome  hath  also  erred,  even  in  things  pertain- 
ing to  the  faith.  If  they  have  erred,  and  in 
the  happier  ages  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
what  guarantee  have  we  that  the  Anglican 
Church  may  not  err.  Certainly  the  Church 
of  England  does  not  claim  for  herself  an 
inerrancy  which  she  refuses  to  the  ancient 
churches  of  Christendom.  Nowhere  in  her  for- 
mularies does  she  show  any  solicitude  for  her 
own  infallibility.  Nor  does  she  show  solicitude 
for  the  creeds.  Her  sole  solicitude  is  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Word  of  God,  uncorrupted 


200  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

by  men's  traditions  or  made  of  no  efifect  by  the 
commandments  of  men.  This  over-concern 
about  the  creeds  ^  indicates  a  weakening  hold 
upon  the  doctrine  as  Christ  hath  commanded 
and  as  this  Church  hath  received  the  same. 
This  ultra-devotion  to  the  creeds  has  now  gone  so 
far  that  those  who  draw  their  doctrine  from  Scrip- 
ture, diligently  studied  and  with  such  aids  as 
help  to  the  knowledge  of  the  same,  and  who  are 
inwardly  persuaded  of  the  truth  they  hold,  are 
accused  of  betraying  the  faith,  or  charged  with 
lacking  any  objective  basis  for  their  faith,  and 
their  belief  is  counted  as  a  vain  thing,  because 
it  rests  on  the  shifting  sands  of  subjectivity. 
There  is  confusion  here  and  grave  misunderstand- 
ing. It  can  only  be  overcome  by  taking  the  vows 
of  the  Ordinal  as  meaning  what  they  say,  as  carry- 
ing the  meaning  which  those  who  placed  them  in 
the  Prayer  Book  intended  them  to  convey.     We 

^  The  Catholic  Church  existed  for  four  centuries,  at  its  best  and 
doing  its  greatest  work,  without  any  creed  in  its  offices,  Hturgical  or 
other.  Peter  the  Fuller,  patriarch  of  Antioch,  was  the  first  to  intro- 
duce the  Creed  into  the  Liturgy,  in  the  time  of  the  Monophysite 
controversy  about  470.  The  precedent  was  adopted  by  Constanti- 
nople about  510,  and  then  by  Spain  589;  by  the  Gallican  and 
Anglican  churches  about  the  eighth  century,  and  by  Rome  so  late 
as  the  eleventh.  In  the  offices  of  the  Breviary,  the  use  of  the  Creed 
was  ordered  in  the  ninth  century.  The  Creed  was  neither  sung 
nor  said  during  mass  at  Rome  until  the  time  of  Benedict  VIII 
(loi 2-1024).  Cf.  "Ordo  Romanus  Primus,"  ed.  by  Atchley, 
p.  80. 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  201 

must  revert  again  to  that  earlier  position  that 
Scripture  is  above  the  creeds,  and  that  the 
creeds  are  to  be  interpreted  by  Scripture  and 
not  the  Scripture  by  the  creeds.  The  vow  which 
the  Church  imposes  on  her  clergy  to  be  ''diligent 
in  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  in  such 
studies  as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the  same,^' 
makes  progress  possible,  while  to  put  the 
creeds  above  Scripture,  as  the  key  to  their  inter- 
pretation, makes  it  impossible.  The  Church  of 
England  is  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  those 
memorable  words  of  Robinson,  the  Puritan 
minister,  that  God  may  yet  have  more  light  to 
break  forth  from  His  Holy  Word.  But  we  need 
not  go  outside  of  the  Church  for  such  reminders. 
Our  own  Bishop  Butler  in  the  Analogy  has 
uttered  the  same  conviction :  — 

*'And  as  it  is  owned  the  whole  scheme  of 
Scripture  is  not  yet  understood,  so  if  it  ever 
comes  to  be  understood  before  the  restitu- 
tion of  all  things,  and  without  miraculous 
interpositions,  it  must  be  in  the  same  way  as 
natural  knowledge  is  come  at:  by  the  con- 
tinuance and  progress  of  learning  and  lib- 
erty, and  by  particular  persons  attending 
to,  comparing,  and  pursuing  intimations 
scattered  up  and  down  it,  which  are  over- 


202  FREEDOM    IN   THE   CHURCH 

looked  and  disregarded  by  the  generality  of 
the  world.  For  this  is  the  way  in  which  all 
improvements  are  made,  by  thoughtful 
men's  tracing  on  obscure  hints,  as  it  were, 
dropped  us  by  nature  accidentally,  or  which 
seem  to  come  into  our  minds  by  chance. 
Nor  is  it  at  all  incredible  that  a  hook,  which 
has  been  so  long  in  the  possession  of  man- 
kind, should  contain  many  truths  as  yet 
undiscovered,''     (Pt.  ii,  chap,  iii.) 

To  this  test  the  creeds  must  be  constantly 
subjected,  and  through  the  process  of  this  test 
they  are  passing  to-day.  Whether  we  approve  or 
not,  however  great  our  regret  or  pain  at  seeing 
things  which  we  cherish  become  subjects  of 
doubt  or  controversy,  the  wiser  course  is  to 
accept  an  inevitable  situation,  and  wait  for  the 
conclusion  equally  inevitable.  In  the  case  of 
the  Virgin-birth  the  candid  student  in  search 
for  the  truth,  will  rightly  dwell  on  its  tendency 
to  prevent  the  person  of  Christ  from  being 
regarded  as  an  evolution  from  humanity  by  a 
natural  process;  or  to  represent  the  subordina- 
tion of  man  to  the  transcendent  will  of  Deity, 
the  exaltation  of  God  and  not  of  man.  These 
considerations  constitute  a  presumption  in  favor 
of  its  truth,  in  addition  to  the  weight  of   the 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  203 

Gospel  narratives.  But  there  are  also  objections 
and  difficulties  which  create  doubt  and  uncer- 
tainty. It  will  not  meet  the  case  to  say  that 
these  objections  are  frivolous,  captious,  not 
to  be  taken  seriously,  or  that  those  who  make 
them  are  insincere,  or  seeking  to  discredit 
Scripture.  The  Bible  as  the  word  of  God  con- 
tains all  things  necessary  to  salvation.  But  all 
that  is  written  in  Scripture  is  not  in  the  fullest 
or  truest  sense  Scripture.  Else  should  the  speech 
of  Bildad  the  Shuhite  be  placed  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  the  utterances  of  great  prophets.  There 
are  parts  of  Scripture  which  are  Hke  the  fixed 
stars  shining  by  their  own  light  and  centres  of 
vast  systems,  while  other  parts  are  subordinate 
and  inferior.  The  Virgin-birth  is  contained  in 
Scripture,  but  the  question  before  the  devout 
scholar  is  whether  it  is  such  an  essential  integral 
part  of  the  Scripture  as  to  be  intimately  bound 
up  with  the  things  necessary  to  salvation.  The 
incident  of  the  Virgin-birth  is  given  in  two  only 
of  the  four  Gospels,  and  never  alluded  to  again. 
Christ  Himself  does  not  refer  to  it.  The  three 
great  apostles,  Peter  and  John  and  Paul,  are  si- 
lent about  it.  The  attitude  of  Mary  as  given  in 
the  evangelical  narratives  seems  to  many  incon- 
sistent with  the  knowledge  or  consciousness  of 
such  a  wonderful  circumstance  as  the  Annuncia- 


204  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

tion.  And  further  a  suspicion  has  arisen  that 
in  the  New  Testament  itself  there  is  another  way 
of  referring  to  the  birth  of  Christ/  which  has  been 
overlooked  under  the  influence  of  the  convic- 
tion of  the  Virgin-birth ;  so  that  when  it  occurs 
it  has  been  interpreted  as  a  way  of  speaking,  a 
concession,  a  suppression  required  by  the  occa- 
sion. It  may  be  so,  but  this  is  a  question  not 
to  be  determined  in  any  a  priori  way.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  Virgin-birth  incompatible  with 
the  teaching  of  St.  John  or  of  St.  Paul;  but  the 
circumstance  of  their  silence  would  at  least  seem 
to  imply  that  it  was  not  so  essential,  as  that  a 
belief  in  the  Incarnation  depended  on  it.^ 

^  Cf.  Luke  iv.  22;   John  i.  45;  vi.  42. 

^  In  his  valuable  treatise  on  the  "Incarnation,"  Dr.  Briggs  has 
remarked:  "All  that  we  have  thus  far  learned  of  the  incarnation 
from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  St.  John, 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  would  stand  firm  if  there  had  been 
no  Virgin-birth;  if  Jesus  had  been  born  of  Joseph  and  Mary, 
having  father  and  mother,  as  any  other  child.  Therefore  the 
Virgin-birth  is  only  one  of  many  statements  of  the  mode  of 
the  incarnation.  It  has  no  more  documentary  value,  no  more 
intrinsic  importance,  than  any  other  of  the  many  we  have  thus  far 
studied.  The  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  does  not  depend  upon 
the  Virgin-birth.  Since  all  the  other  passages  relating  to  the  in- 
carnation, except  that  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  know  nothing 
of  the  Virgin-birth,  it  is  only  a  minor  matter  connected  with  the 
incarnation,  and  should  have  a  subordinate  place  in  the  doctrine. 
That  which  is  unknown  to  the  teachings  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  St.  John  and  St.  James,  and  our  Lord  Himself,  and  is 
absent  from  the  earliest  and  latest  Gospels  cannot  be  so  essential 
as  many  people  have  supposed"  (p.  217). 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  205 

It  is  said  that  if  the  greater  writers  of  the 
New  Testament  are  silent,  as  if  they  had  not 
heard  of  the  Virgin-birth,  yet  its  universal  ac- 
ceptance within  the  Church  at  the  beginning 
of  the  second  century  constitutes  an  argument 
for  its  character  as  essential  truth  which  can- 
not be  overcome.  Here,  too,  qualification  is 
necessary  lest  we  be  misled  by  uncritical  state- 
ments. Ignatius  (fiiy),  it  is  true,  had  re- 
ceived the  report,  but  exactly  in  what  spirit  is 
not  quite  so  clear.  He  was  an  ecstatic  soul, 
and  numbered  it  with  the  mysteries  of  the 
passion  and  resurrection.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  stands  alone  among  the  writings 
known  as  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  in  making  ref- 
erence to  it.  These  writings  may  extend,  as  to 
their  date,  nearly  to  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, beginning  with  Clement  of  Rome,  a.d.  96. 
Clement  is  silent  regarding  it,  so  are  Barnabas 
and  Polycarp,  and  Papias  in  the  few  fragments 
of  his  book,  and  silent  also  are  the  authors  of 
the  Shepherd  of  Hermas  ^  and  of  the  Epistle  to 
Diognetus.  Aristides,  the  Apologist,  had  heard 
of  it  (133),  introducing  it  in  his  first  allusion 

^  Cf.  Taylor,  "The  Witness  of  Hermas  to  the  Four  Gospels," 
London,  1892,  pp.  30-32,  for  the  suggestion  of  a  possible  reference 
in  "Sim."  ix  (3,  4),  in  the  bright  unhewn  stones,  which  make  the 
foundation  of  the  tower  (16,  7). 


2o6  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

with  ''It  is  said,"  but  undoubtedly  accepting  it. 
This  does  not  look  Hke  an  universal  consensus, 
but  who  shall  say  how  much  or  how  little  in  this 
case  means  the  argument  from  silence  ? 

When  we  come  to  Justin  Martyr  (f  c.  165)  or 
to  Irenaeus,  who  followed  him  in  the  second  cen- 
tury (fc.  190),  two  writers  who  fully  accepted 
the  fact  of  the  Virgin-birth,  we  become  aware, 
on  a  closer  study  of  their  writings,  that  the  evi- 
dential value  of  the  Virgin-birth,  as  a  fulfilment 
of  ancient  prophecy,  is  a  preponderating  motive, 
if  not  the  sole  one,  which  recommends  it  to  their 
reason.  The  Church  was  endeavoring  to  meet 
the  charge  of  the  heathens,  that  Christianity  was 
a  new  religion,  and  that  a  new  religion  could  not 
be  true.  To  carry  the  religion  of  Christ  back 
into  the  past,  and  to  show  that  it  had  been 
anticipated  and  foretold  centuries  before  Christ 
appeared,  became  therefore  a  motive  with  apolo- 
gists and  polemical  writers.  When  the  Virgin- 
birth  was  accepted  it  became  the  most  striking 
evidence  of  the  fulfilment  of  a  prophecy  an- 
nounced some  seven  hundred  years  before 
(Is.  vii.  14);  and  in  comparison  with  such  an 
antiquity,  the  prevailing  religions  in  the  empire 
could  not  compete.  The  claim  was  carried 
further  back  by  means  of  the  Virgin-birth  to  the 
creation    itself,  when  Eve  became  the  counter- 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  207 

part  of  Mary.  It  is  not  here  the  Virgin-birth, 
in  its  miraculous  aspect  alone,  or  in  any  neces- 
sary relation  to  the  Incarnation,  but  as  an  event 
taking  off  the  rawness  of  novelty,  answering 
the  question,  why  Christianity  had  not  appeared 
earlier  on  the  scene,  if  it  were  a  Divine  revela- 
tion. This  argument,  which  told  most  effectively 
in  the  second  century,  has  now  lost  its  force 
and  been  abandoned.^ 

It  is  necessary  that  we  should  give  up  the  as- 
sumption that  because  a  certain  writer  at  a 
certain  time  refers  to  the  Virgin-birth,  therefore 
other  writers  accept  it  and  in  the  same  sense, 
or  make  the  same  use  of  it.  If  we  find  that 
Aristides  mentions  it,  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
Athenagoras  does  not  (c.  177),  and  his  Apology 
for  power  and  elegance  is  unsurpassed.  Ar- 
nobius  makes  no  reference  to  it  (c.  300),  but 
his  contemporary  Lactantius  does.    The  Apology 

^  See  ante^  p.  124.  There  was  another  line  of  evidence  for  the 
Virgin-birth  and  for  the  virginity  in  partu  to  which  only  a  reference 
is  here  made.  The  reader  who  would  know  the  sort  of  proof  on 
which  the  early  Church  relied  at  the  time  when  this  doctrine  was 
working  its  way  to  the  popular  acceptance  may  seek  it  for  himself, 
in  the  "  Protevangelium  Jacobi "  (19,  20),  a  book  of  great  antiquity, 
widely  circulated,  whose  gratuitous  information,  eminent  Church 
fathers  did  not  disdain  to  employ.  In  another  work  based  on  the 
so-called  "Protevangelium,"  known  as  the  "Evangelium  Pseudo- 
Matthaei,"  the  same  proof  is  incorporated.  Cf.  Coleridge's  re- 
mark, in  note  to  p.  186. 


2o8  FREEDOM   IN  THE   CHURCH 

of  Minucius  Felix  is  silent.  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria does  not  cite  the  passages  referring  to  it 
in  Matthew  and  Luke.  One  reference  to  Christ 
as  born  of  a  Virgin  is  found  in  the  Stromata  (vi, 
15),  but  considering  his  views  on  virginity,  it  may 
be  of  doubtful  value.  Clement  makes  no  use  of 
the  fact.  Origen  comments  on  the  Gospel  of  the 
Infancy,  but  he  builds  up  his  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  without  reference  to  it. 

When  we  pass  into  the  fourth  century,  it  is 
a  circumstance  of  significance,  calling  for  ex- 
planation, that  in  the  creeds  of  the  churches  of 
Jerusalem  and  Caesarea,  the  Virgin-birth  is  not 
mentioned,  and  its  absence  from  the  Creed  of 
Nicaea  is  still  more  striking.  It  is  these  cumula- 
tive considerations,  which,  while  they  do  not 
justify  the  denial  of  the  Virgin-birth,  yet  do 
confirm  the  conviction  that  it  is  not  so  essential 
to  the  Incarnation  as  has  been  maintained ;  that 
in  the  Eastern  Church  at  least,  however  it  may 
have  been  in  the  Western,  the  belief  in  the  Incar- 
nation has  not  so  universally  associated  with  the 
Virgin-birth,  as  to  be  dependent  upon  it. 

The  Church  is  also  confronted  to-day  with  the 
possibility  that  what  has  happened  in  the  case 
of  the  opening  chapters  in  the  Book  of  Genesis 
may  happen  in  the  case  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
Infancy  as  given  by  Matthew  and  Luke,  —  a 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  209 

great  falling  away  from  the  literal  accept- 
ance once  accorded  them.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, and  with  no  additional  evidence  in 
confirmation  of  the  narrative,  it  is  not  wise  to 
attempt  to  bulwark  the  Virgin-birth  by  doubt- 
ful scientific  analogies,  or  seek  to  show  that  the 
exceptional  personality  of  Christ  can  only  be 
explained  by  His  exceptional  birth.  We  have 
already  gone  too  far  in  our  dependence  on  the 
natural  sciences.  It  is  better  to  keep  strictly 
to  the  religious  sphere.  Laws  of  heredity,  laws 
of  descent,  character  as  resulting  from  inherited 
structure,  considerations  based  on  evolution, 
are  out  of  place  in  religion.  ''Ce  n'est  pas 
la  science  qui  nous  manque,  a  nous  modernes; 
nous  Tavons  surabondamment.  .  .  .  Mais  ce 
que  nous  avons  absorbe,  nous  absorbe.  Ce 
qui  nous  manque  c'est  la  poesie  de  la  vie." 
And  indeed,  the  Virgin-birth,  rightly  interpreted, 
is  a  protest  against  the  view  that  Christ  comes 
forth  from  humanity  by  any  process  of  evolu- 
tion or  heredity.  Coleridge^  long  ago  disposed  of 
this  position,  and  his  statement  may  be  regarded 
as  final,  —  that  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  is  as 
difficult  to  account  for  with  a  human  mother 
alone  as  with  the  ordinary  parentage.  Spencer- 
ism  in  theology  leads  inevitably  to  the  novel 

^  See  ante. 


210  FREEDOM   IN  THE   CHURCH 

dogma  of  Rome  (1854),  that  Mary  herself  was 
sinless  because  immaculately  conceived.  That 
pushes  the  difficulty  back  by  a  generation,  where 
it  is  not  quite  so  apparent,  but  it  is  there.  A 
similar  attempt  to  strengthen  a  dogma  by  an 
appeal  to  science  was  the  acceptance  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  '* natural  selection"  as  the  analogue  of 
predestination  in  the  Calvinistic  theology.  The 
Divine  decree  of  election,  it  was  said,  meant  that 
God  would  save  all  who  were  worth  saving. 
The  trouble  with  these  and  other  apologetics 
for  ancient  dogmas  is  that  they  are  rationalistic, 
treading  where  Scripture  has  not  ventured,  not 
only  going  beyond  the  Word  of  God,  but  by 
implication  weakening  the  Scripture  teaching 
regarding  the  Holy  Spirit's  agency,  as  though 
the  Holy  Spirit  were  not  adequate  to  the  task 
of  guaranteeing  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus.  ''And 
the  child  grew,  and  waxed  strong  in  Spirit; 
and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon  Him."  The 
grace  of  God,  the  ''sufficient  grace,"  is  none 
other  than  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  function  it  is 
in  the  economy  of  the  eternal  and  ever  blessed 
Trinity  to  unite  together  the  Eternal  Father  and 
the  Eternal  Son  in  the  bond  of  the  infinite  love ; 
whose  function  on  earth  is  to  bring  all  mankind 
into  the  same  unity  of  the  Divine  love  and  into 
loving  obedience   to   the    Divine  will.     Surely, 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  211 

then,  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  ever  waits  upon  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  who  proceedeth  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  is  adequate  to  explain  the 
sinlessness  of  Jesus,  without  resort  to  some 
theory  of  natural  law  in  the  spiritual  world. 

A  mistake  has  been  made  at  this  point,  and 
we  need  to  retrace  our  steps.  There  may  be 
imitations,  dim  prophecies  of  spiritual  law  in 
the  natural  world,  which  may  serve  as  confirma- 
tions of  our  faith ;  but  to  reverse  the  process  and 
to  project  the  natural  into  the  spiritual  order  is 
to  lead  only  to  disaster.  The  experience  of  the 
ancient  Catholic  Church,  as  already  given,  is 
here  a  warning  and  not  a  precedent  to  be  fol- 
lowed. And  it  is  the  reversion  to  that  Catholic 
Church  of  the  fifth  century  which  in  great 
measure  explains  the  present  embarrassment  and 
sensitiveness  about  the  Virgin-birth. 

And  this  process,  naturalistic  rather  than 
spiritual,  has  been  accompanied  by  another 
motive,  engendered  in  the  great  romantic  move- 
ment which  swept  like  a  whirlwind  over  the  last 
century.  Romanticism  in  literature  and  art,  or 
in  the  Church,  is  a  term  too  large  to  be  here 
defined,  but  of  some  of  its  fruits  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical sphere  it  may  be  said  that  they  constitute 
a  departure  from  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  as  this 
Church  hath  received  it.    The  Virgin-birth  began 


212  FREEDOM   IN   THE   CHURCH 

to  rise  into  a  prominence  unknown  since  the 
Reformation,  in  consequence  of  the  proclama- 
tion by  Pope  Pius  IX  (1854)  of  the  dogma  that 
Mary  herself  was  immaculately  conceived.  To 
this  motive  must  be  added  another  —  the  influ- 
ence of  Italian  art,  which  to  many  has  become 
almost  their  only  religion,  where  the  mediaeval 
worship  of  Mary  has  been  presented  as  the 
central  fact  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  appeal 
made  by  this  feature  of  ecclesiastical  art  to  the 
host  of  travellers  and  pilgrims  who  now  visit 
Italy  as  a  sacred  land  is  responsible  to  some 
degree  for  giving  an  undue  and  exaggerated, 
even  a  morbid,  prominence  to  the  Virgin-birth, 
so  that  now  when  the  clause  is  recited  in 
the  Creed,  it  is  with  difficulty  we  escape  from 
it  to  the  true  and  original  purport  of  its  inser- 
tion. 

It  may  serve  to  show  how  far  we  have  travelled 
from  the  consciousness  of  our  Protestant  fore- 
fathers, and  from  the  spirit  of  our  formularies, 
if  we  turn  to  some  of  the  commentaries  on 
the  Creed,  which  once  enjoyed  great  vogue, 
and  are  now  become  unfamiliar.  Among 
them  is  Nowell's  '*  Catechism,"  very  influential 
in  the  sixteenth  century  and  after.  There  it 
reads:  — 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  213 

'^Question.  But  why  is  there  in  this  con- 
fession, the  Apostles'  Creed,  mention  made 
by  name  of  the  Virgin  Mary  ? 

''Answer.  That  He,  Christ, may  be  known 
to  be  that  true  seed  of  Abraham  and  Da- 
vid, of  whom  it  was  from  God  foretold  and 
foreshadowed  by  the  prophecies  of  the 
prophets."     (Parker  Soc.  ed.,  p.  135.) 

In  Archbishop  Seeker's  '*  Lectures  on  the 
Catechism,"  ^  of  which  an  American  edition  was 
pubhshed  in  1835,  it  reads:  — 

**The  reason  for  inserting  it  [the  name 
Mary]  in  the  Creed  most  probably  was  be- 
cause it  is  set  down  in  Scripture,  and  that 
by  naming  the  particular  person  of  whom 
our  Saviour  sprung.  He  might  appear  to  be 
of  that  family  from  which  it  was  foretold 
He  should  arise,  being  born  of  this  Virgin 
of  the  house  of  David."     (P.  67.) 

The  Virgin-birth  is  not  in  the  foreground  of 
the  consciousness  of  either  writer;  but  both 
writers  are  in  accord  with  the  interpretation  of 
the    clause  by  Ignatius,  who    also   insisted    on 

^Archbishop  Seeker  was  born  1693  and  died  1768.  He  was 
consecrated  bishop  of  Bristol  1735;  transferred  to  Oxford  1737, 
to  which  see  was  added  the  deanery  of  St.  Paul's  1750;  and  en- 
throned Archbishop  of  Canterbury  1758. 


214  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

Christ's  descent  from  the  house  of  David  as  an 
essential  thing/  that  Christ  was  Messiah  ful- 
filhng  the  expectation  of  the  ages.  Hence  the 
importance  of  the  genealogies  in  the  prologues 
of  Matthew  and  Luke,  and  not  merely  the  inci- 
dents of  the  Virgin-birth.^ 

The  difficulties  waiting  upon  the  creeds  and 
their  interpretation  are  not  likely  to  diminish, 
rather  will  they  increase,  for  the  question  at 
issue  is  the  freedom  of  the  clergy  and  laity .^     Is 

^  See  ante,  p.  io8. 

^  It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  the  genealogies  trace  the 
descent  of  Joseph  and  not  of  Mary. 

^ "  The  Church  of  England  is  based  upon  the  Bible.  The 
Reformation  was  essentially  the  creation  of  a  new  court  of  appeal, 
the  shifting  of  the  sanction  for  belief  from  the  authority  of  the 
Church  to  the  written  word.  The  Church  everywhere  appeals  to 
the  written  word;  nothing  which  is  not  contained  therein  or  justifi- 
able therefrom  can  be  imposed  upon  a  Christian  man  whether  lay 
or  cleric.  The  minister  is  to  be  a  student  of  the  Word.  '  Will 
you  be  diligent  in  .  .  .  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  in 
such  studies  as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the  same  .? '  " 

Mark  the  word  "  studies  " :  he  is  not  to  accept  the  documents 
as  formal  decrees  with  fixed  traditional  meaning,  but  as  a  literature 
of  which  he  is  progressively  to  learn  the  meaning.  Now,  if  such 
be  the  position,  it  appears  impossible  to  dispute  the  fact  that,  as 
study  reveals  a  new  content  for  the  words,  new  meaning,  new 
connotation  in  the  Scriptures,  there  must  be  liberty  of  interpreta- 
tion of  the  formularies.  If  the  formularies  be  the  index,  the 
summary,  the  table  of  contents  of  the  Scriptures,  and  if  study, 
imposed  as  a  sacred  duty,  reveal  new  meaning  of  the  Scriptures, 
that  new  meaning  must  inevitably  be  admitted  in  ascertaining  and 
determining  the  meaning  of  the  formularies.  Rev.  W.  Manning, 
M.A.,  in  Hihhert  Journal,  January,  1906,  p.  413. 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  215 

the  Church  of  Christ  free  to  examine  and  in- 
quire and  to  make  use  of  such  studies  as  help  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures;  or  are  these 
things  determined  in  advance  by  the  authority  of 
tradition  as  given  in  the  creeds  ?  This  Church 
inherits  the  spirit  of  freedom  from  the  Anglican 
Church,  and  the  Prayer  Book  is  a  powerful 
incentive  to  its  exercise,  and  was  intended  so 
to  be.  Not  until  the  Prayer  Book  is  abandoned 
as  a  mistake  and  failure  can  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom be  exorcised.  The  rehabilitation  of  Con- 
stitution and  Canons,  the  insistence  that  the 
Church  is  organized  as  a  business  corporation, 
and  makes  a  contract  with  the  clergy,  by  which 
they  renounce  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  them  free  in  return  for  their  daily  bread, 
—  all  this  line  of  procedure  will  be  of  no  avail. 
We  have  got  into  the  existing  difficulty  by 
abandoning  the  teaching  of  the  Prayer  Book, 
by  seeking  to  make  the  Church  infallible,  by 
substituting  tradition  for  God's  Word,  and  put- 
ting a  burden  on  the  creeds  which  they  are  not 
able  to  carry. 

The  relief  from  the  evils  of  the  situation  may 
be  sought  in  two  ways,  (i)  We  may  return  to 
the  original  interpretation  of  the  clause,  **born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,"'  impressing  upon  our  minds, 
as  we  recite  it,  how  it  means  that  the  Son  of  God 


2i6  FREEDOM    IN   THE    CHURCH 

was  actually  born  into  this  world  of  a  human 
mother.  St.  Paul  has  given  the  equivalent  ex- 
pression, *'Born  of  a  woman,  born  under  the 
law."  We  must  keep  constantly  before  us  the 
interpretation  of  the  Creed,  as  given  in  the 
Church  Catechism,  for  it  is  one  of  the  most 
valuable  guarantees  of  spiritual  liberty  we  pos- 
sess. Whatever  the  Creed  may  contain  in  the 
way  of  subordinate  statement,  what  we  chiefly 
learn  from  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
Fatherhood  as  based  on  the  creation,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Divine  Sonship  as  including  the 
redemption  of  all  mankind  in  Christ,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  sanctifying  the  people 
of  God,  in  order  to  bring  them  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Father  and  the  Son.  This  is  what 
we  are  also  chiefly  to  teach ;  and  this  is  what  the 
Creed  means,  not  only  in  the  daily  office,  but 
also  at  baptism,  and  in  the  visitation  of  the 
sick,  or  at  the  burial  of  the  dead. 

And  (2)  there  is  a  provision  made  in  the 
rubric  of  the  English  book  before  all  the  creeds, 
—  Apostles',  Nicene,  or  Athanasian,  —  that  they 
be  ''sung  or  said.''  In  the  American  book  the 
word  ''sung"  has  been  omitted,  but  we  may 
think  no  special  significance  attaches  to  the 
omission.  It  was  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Arnold 
of    Rugby  that   the   creeds   should   always   be 


MODERN   SENSITIVENESS  217 

sung.  There  has  never  been  any  authoritative 
decision  as  to  the  significance  of  their  hturgical 
use,  nor  is  there  to-day  any  common  under- 
standing. If  they  are  sung  they  pass  into  the 
rank  of  the  great  hymns,  the  Te  Deum  and  the 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  where  misunderstandings 
disappear.  Recited  in  their  original  sense,  in 
every  clause,  they  can  no  longer  be.  They  have 
been  put  to  the  test  of  Scripture,  as  Article  viii 
requires,  and  the  clauses,  **He  descended  into 
heir'  and  the  '"resurrection  of  the  flesh,''  have 
not  stood  the  test.  But  as  hymns  expressing  the 
faith  of  the  Church  of  the  early  centuries,  they 
will  retain  their  dignity  and  importance,  —  a 
revelation  of  the  human  soul  responding  to 
the  Divine  call ;  which  if  they  become  the  sub- 
ject of  controversy  and  business  contract  they 
must  lose.  So  long  as  we  have  the  Word  of  God 
containing  all  things  necessary  to  salvation,  the 
creeds  are  not  indispensable.  They  might  be 
omitted  from  the  offices  of  the  Church  and  the 
Christian  faith  not  be  impaired.  But  as  sum- 
maries of  the  convictions  of  the  Christian 
heart  in  past  ages,  as  ties  binding  us  to  the  one 
common  Christian  life  and  experience  in  every 
age,  they  are  invaluable,  the  most  precious 
heritage  of  our  historical  faith,  although  not  its 
complete  expression. 


INDEX 


Absolution,  25. 
Acquileja,  Creed  of,  55. 
Ambrose,  baptismal  creed  in  tlie 

time  of,  47,  136. 
American  Episcopal  Church,  51, 

S7,  90- 

Anglican  Church,  3  ff.,  17  fF.,  21, 
24,  40. 

Apocryphal  Gospels,  136. 

Apollinaris,  denial  of  the  human- 
ity of  Christ,  131,  141. 

Apostles  Creed,  18,  20;  its  origin 
and  character,  32,  35,  36,  37 ; 
relation  of,  to  the  time  when 
it  originated,  36  ff. ;  diverse 
interpretations  of,  42  ff. ;  a  pro- 
test against  Gnosticism,  113; 
fusion  with  Nicene  Creed,  133. 

Apostolic  Fathers,  205,  206. 

Aquinas,  11,  50. 

Arians,  their  acceptance  of  Vir- 
gin-birth, 129. 

Aristides,  on  Virgin-birth,  205. 

Armada,  162. 

Arnobius,  "Apology"  of,  207. 

Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  of  Rugby, 
on  use  of  the  Creeds,  216. 

Ascension  of  Christ,  interpreta- 
tions of,  59. 

Asia  Minor,    106,    113,   123,    125, 

133^  155- 
Athanasius,  on   the   Incarnation, 
54,  56;  citation  from,  121. 


Athenagoras,  "  Apology  "  of,  207. 

Atonement,  13. 

Augustine,  50,  117  ff .  ;  view  of 
the  Incarnation,  120,  137  ff. ; 
on  the  sinlessness  of  Mary, 
122  ;  on  the  mention  of  Christ- 
mas, 133  ;  on  the  Virgin-birth, 
131  (note),  149,  158;  citation 
from,  164. 

Baptism,    27 ;     formula    of,    39 ; 

formula  of,  as  expanded  in  the 

Creed,  46  ;  Roman  office  for,  46. 
Becon,  on  descent  into  hell,  56; 

citation  from,  177. 
Biblical  criticism,  29,  31. 
Briggs,   C.  A.,    citation  from,  on 

the  Virgin-birth,  204. 
Brooks,  Bishop  Phillips,  181. 
Buddhism,  105. 
Bushnell,  Horace,  181. 
Butler,   Archer,    quotation    from, 

145  ff. 
Butler,     Bishop,     citation     from 

Analogy  of,  201. 
Byzantine  Church,  122. 

Cassarea,  Creed  of  the  Church  in, 

126. 
Calvin,  citation  from  Institutes  of, 

174. 
"Catholic,"  interpretations  of  the 


219 


220 


INDEX 


Catholic  Church,  definition  of,  8, 

9 ;  the  new  society,  37,  38 ;  its 

motive,  104. 
"  Catholic  "  Tradition,  'jd^  Jj,  99. 
Cerinthus,  128. 
Chalcedon,  Council  of,   140,   165, 

167,  169. 
Christmas  festival,  133. 
Christ,  3,4;  the  test  of  Scripture, 

29  ff. ;  His  birth  and  death,  103  ; 

His  humanity,  105  ;  His  Mes- 

siahship,  214. 
Church,  infallibility  of,  10,  26. 
Church  Catechism,  2   (note),  15, 

43.  50.  79- 

Church  of  England,  161.  (See 
Anglican  Church.) 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  112,  125, 
208. 

Coleridge,  on  the  creeds,  loi  ; 
comment  of  on  theotokos,  168 ; 
citations  from,  on  the  Virgin- 
birth,  184  ff. 

Communion  of  Saints,  interpre- 
tations of,  62. 

Confessions  of  the  Eastern 
Church,  69. 

Confirmation,  yy. 

Constantine,  vision  of,  198. 

Cranmer,  Archbishop,  12,  24,  26, 
29,46,97,  166. 

Creation,  contrast  with  emana- 
tion, 53. 

Creeds,  reference  of  Articles  to, 
7;  use  of,  at  Baptism,  46; 
various  interpretations  of,  53  ff., 
95  ;  value  of,  81  ;  liturgical  use 
of,  200  (note). 

Creighton,  M.,  late  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, citation  from,  14,  30. 


Cyprian,  baptismal  creed  in  the 

time  of,  47. 
Cyril   of  Jerusalem,    124  (note), 

134. 

Deism,  12,  51. 

Descent  into  hell,  32  ff.,  55,  217. 

Docetism,  105. 

Dorner,  citations  from,  141  (note), 

143,  145,  196- 
Duchesne,  on  the  cult  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary  in  the  Roman  Church, 
159  (note). 

Eastern  Creeds,  32. 

Ebionites,  128. 

Endless  punishment,  66. 

Ephesus,  Council  of,  151. 

Epiphanius,  134. 

Erasmus,  12. 

Eve   and    Mary,   comparison  of, 

123. 
Evening  Prayer,  25. 

Facundus  of  Hermiane,  baptismal 

profession  in  the  time  of,  48. 
Female  deities,  132. 
Forgiveness  of  sins,  25,  38,  63. 
Formularies  of  faith  in  the  reign 

of  Henry  VHI,  44. 
Fourth   General   Council,  7  (see 

Chalcedon,  Council  of). 
Froude,  J.  A.,  162  (note). 
Future     state,    as   conceived   by 

Homer  and  Virgil,  36. 

Gelasian  Sacramentary,  48  (note). 
General    Councils,    5,    6,    7,   27, 

140. 
Gnosticism,  38. 


INDEX 


221 


Gnostics,  their  relation  to  Virgin- 
birth,  129. 

God,  majesty  of,  23 ;  conscious- 
ness of,  25  ;  consciousness  of,  in 
history,  161 ;  consciousness  of, 
at  the  Reformation,  43. 

Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  80  (see 
Virgin-birth). 

Greek  Church,  5,  15,  21,  40,  52. 

Greek  Ordinal,  87. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  6  (note). 

Hampden,  Bishop,  20. 

Harnack,  on  the   Creed,  63 ;  on 

the  Incarnation,  141. 
Helvidian  heresy,  132. 
Henry  VIII,  20. 
Holy  Ghost,  the,  see  Holy  Spirit, 

115,  117,119- 
Holy  Spirit,  the,  144,  210. 
Homilies,  71  if. 
Hutton,  R.  H.,  181. 

Ignatian  epistles,  134. 
Ignatius,  106  ff.,  205. 
Incarnation,  4,  53,    54,   80,    125, 

137  ff.,   140,    142 ;    Church   of 

England,  doctrine  of,  165  ;   see 

Anglican  Church. 
"  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man," 

70. 
Irenaeus,  123. 

Isaiah,  Ch.  VII,  v.  14,  123. 
Isis,  worship  of,  132. 

Jerome,  5,  56. 

Jerusalem,  creed  of  the  Church  in, 

126. 
Jewell,  citations  from  "  Apology  " 

of,  175. 


Joan  of  Kent,  178. 

John  of  Damascus  on  the  Com- 
munion of  Saints,  63  (note)  ; 
on  the  Incarnation,  142  ff.,  159, 
167. 

Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council,  decision  of,  on  "  Life 
Everlasting,"  65. 

Julian  the  Apostate,  35. 

Justification,  23. 

Justin  Martyr,  123,  206. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  181. 

Lactantius,  "Apology"  of,  207. 

Laity,  place  of,  in  Church  of  Eng- 
land, 21,  22;  how  far  creeds 
are  binding  on,  92. 

Last  Judgment,  interpretations  of, 
60. 

Latimer,  Bishop,  on  the  sinless- 
ness  of  Mary,  176. 

Laurentius  Valla,  criticism  on  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  42. 

"  Legal  fiction,"  92  ff. 

Leontius  of  Byzantium,  140. 

Leo  the  Great,  150. 

Life  everlasting,  interpretations 
of,  65. 

Lord  Bacon,  influence  of,  13. 

Luther,  29,  97, 196. 

Lutheran  Church,  13,  23,  24. 

Maine,    Sir    Henry,    on    "legal 

fiction,"  93. 
Manning,  Rev.  W.,  citation  from, 

214  (note). 
Marcion,  113. 
Mary,  4,  43  (see  Virgin  Mary) ; 


222 


INDEX 


immaculate      conception     of, 
189. 
Maurice,  F.  D.,  91,  181. 
McGiffert,  A.  C,  on  the  Apostles' 

Creed,  102  (note),  114,  115. 
Methodius,  oration  attributed  to, 

152. 
Michael  Angelo,  195. 
Middle  Ages,  11,  16,  39. 
Minucius  Felix,  208. 
Mithra,  religion  of,  34,  35. 
Mohammedanism,  37. 
Monasticism,  177. 
Monastic  vows,  97. 
Montanism,  38. 
Morning  Prayer,  25. 
Mother  of  God,  4  (see  also  Theo- 

tokos),  5,  7,  131,  149- 
Mulford,  Republic  of  God,  60. 

National  Church,  authority  of, 
169. 

"Necessary  Doctrine  and  Erudi- 
tion for  any  Christian  Man," 
70. 

Nestorius,  151. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  97,  141,  154, 
166. 

Nicaea,  Council  of,  130. 

Nicene  Creed,  i6,  45,  54,  79,  127, 

133- 
Niceta,  on  Communion  of  Saints, 

62. 
NowelPs  Catechism,  citation  from, 
212. 

Ordinals,  79. 

Oriental  religion,  36,  37,  105. 
Origen,   on   the    Roman    Creed, 
no;  comment  on  Isaiah,  Ch. 


VII,  V.  14,  124;  on  the  Incar- 
nation, 125. 
Oxford  movement,  61. 

Pearson,  Bishop,  12,  49  ff.,  56,  57, 

65. 
Pelagius,  122. 
Peter  the  Lombard,  50. 
Plumtre,  E.  H.,  58  (note). 
Prayer  book,  3,  11,  12,    22,   23, 

24  ff. 
Predestination,  2,  23. 
Priesthood  of  all  Christians,  23. 
Protestant  scholasticism,  49,  51. 
"  Protevangelium    Jacobi,"     207 

(note) . 
Pseudo  Ignatius,  134. 
Puritanism,  11,  13,  28. 
Pusey,  E.  B.,  98,  166. 

Reformation,  3,  11,  16,  20,  21,  22. 

25,  28. 
Reformed  Church,  23,  24,  40. 
Renaissance,  36,  42,  160. 
Resurrection,    interpretations   of, 

58 ;  of  the  body,  32  ff.,  63 ;  of 

the  flesh,  36,  37. 
Robertson,   F.  W.,    sermons   of, 

60;  citation  from,   on  the  hu- 
manity of  Christ,  191. 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  5,  13,  21, 

40 ;    dogmatic  system  of,   52 ; 

errors  of,  84. 
Roman  ordinal,  16,  79,  87. 
Romanticism,  influence  of,  211. 
Rufinus,  commentary  of,  on  the 

Creed,  44,  45  ;  on  the  descent 

into  Hell,  55,  124  (note). 
Rules  of  faith,  in  Apostolic  Age, 

103. 


INDEX 


223 


Saracens,  155. 

Satan,  victory  of  Christ  over,  55. 

Scholasticism,  11,  12. 

Scripture,    authority    of,    10,    14, 

17  ff.,  27,  28,  72  fF.,  81,  163; 

Why  the  Word    of  God,  27 ; 

Anglican  conception  of,  27  ff. 
Seekers'  "Lectures  on  the  Cate- 
chism," citation  from,  213. 
Second  General  Council,  134. 
Session  of  Christ,  interpretations 

of,  59. 
Slattery,  C  L.,  39  (note). 
Socrates,   the   historian,   citation 

from,  151. 
St.  John,  Gospel  of,  126. 
Subscription,   to  creeds,   78,  80, 

89  fF. 
Swainson,  reference  to,  46  (note), 

47,  48  (note),  102  (note). 

Tarsians,  Epistle  to,  109. 
Tertullian,  36  (note),  112. 
Theodoret,  "Dialogues"  of,  153. 
Theotokos,    4,     150,    167     (see 
Mother  of  God). 


Thirty-nine  Articles,  2, 12,  15,  83. 

Tract,  xc,  98. 

Trent  Council  of,  15,  28  (note), 

63,  69,  169. 
Trinity,   doctrine    of,   3,   26,   39, 

52. 

Vigilantius,     opposition     of,     to 

Worship  of  Saints,  63. 
Vincentius  of  Lerins,  61  (note). 
Virgin-birth,  107  fF.,  135  ;  modern 

sensitiveness  on  the  subject  of, 

183  fF. 
Virgin  Mary,  72,   loi,  118,131; 

prayers  offered  to,  153. 
Vows  of  the  clergy,  81,  82. 

Wesley,  John,  51. 

Westminster    Confession,  16,  28 

(note),  41,  49,  69. 
Whitefield,  51. 
Williams,    Isaac,    autobiography 

of,  97. 
Worship  in  Anglican  Church,  25. 

Zwinglian  Church,  23. 


Pnnceton  Theolog.c.il  Sem'^ary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01148  7990 


